One Amazing Thing

Cameron, an African American who is retired from a military career, immediately puts his survival training to use and assumes control after the earthquake. He is not afraid to use physical force to keep others from behaving foolishly, which is witnessed when he knocks Tariq unconscious in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Although he is physically strong in many ways, Cameron’s asthma and dependence on an inhaler weakens him as the story continues. He seems to feel it is his duty to save this group of people and he wonders what he might give up to make sure that the others survive. He has been searching, through the help of a holy man, for a way to absolve himself from lifelong guilt over his high school girlfriend’s abortion. As his breathing becomes labored, it is unclear at the end whether Cameron could still survive if a rescue crew was indeed approaching, but Cameron himself seems to be content with this. His mission was to bring the group to safety, and he has fulfilled—or at least, very nearly—this duty. 

As the only married couple in this group, the Pritchetts have spent many years of married life together but still seem as if they do not know each other or how to make each other happy. Mr. Pritchett’s story reveals a childhood of poverty and neglect; as an adult he seems perfectly suited to not having children or even a pet. He has a successful career as an accountant and enjoys the amenities of his success. Mrs. Pritchett clearly feels as if she has taken a wrong turn in life; her suicide attempt was a way to remove herself from what she saw as a painful, empty existence. Over and over, her thoughts return to a moment when she was eighteen years old eating a piece of peach cobbler with a girlfriend. She had a chance to run a bakery with this friend but ended up marrying instead. She no longer believes that suicide is the answer and would like to start over in life. Although the circumstances of the earthquake and being trapped underground affect all of the survivors and serve to bring them closer together, Mr. and Mrs. Pritchett do not rekindle a romance with each other. At best, they come to a clearer understanding of who they have married.

Tariq, a college-aged Muslim, is the youngest male of the group and acts out aggressively. He is not willing to cede authority to Cameron and is ready at any time to come to blows when he has been challenged or to protect a woman’s honor. His experiences in life—especially the arrest of his father for no other reason than his nationality and religion—have taught him to be distrustful of others and also to seek the approval of others for his own actions. He wants desperately to be admired; it is this desire that causes him to behave recklessly at times, putting himself and others in danger. He may not yet be involved in an extremist Muslim group, but it is clear that Tariq at the beginning of the story feels ready to be a martyr. By the end of his time trapped in the basement, Tariq seems calmer and more in control of his actions.

Mr. Mangalam and Malathi are the two Indian Consulate employees who are trapped with their clients after the earthquake. Each of them feels a sense of responsibility for the earthquake; only moments before, they kissed in Mr. Mangalam’s office, even though she knows he’s married. They are both, as revealed in their stories, working in America as a punishment for bad behavior—Malathi for burning all the hair off the scalp of a haughty upper-class woman, and Mr. Mangalam for having an affair and embarrassing his wealthy wife’s family. Although they had allowed their flirtation to advance to the point of a passionate kiss, neither of them shows any sign of true affection for each other in the aftermath of the earthquake. Both, given the chance, would happily return to India if it meant they could begin new lives for themselves.