Severance

Ruifang is Candace’s late mother. Like Candace, she undergoes the trauma of losing a part of her identity after immigrating to America, and her resultant behavior shapes Candace’s character.

During the first four years of Candace’s life, Ruifang raises her in Fuzhou and is a caring and kind parent. After moving to America, Ruifang becomes unhappy and lonely. She misses her family and goes from a well-respected position in society to the bottom of the ladder in America. She desperately wants to move back to China, but her husband Zhigang won’t allow it. Ruifang comforts herself through rituals, like her skincare routine and her daily prayers, and by imagining different versions of her life in which she is well-respected and happy.

Upon reuniting with Candace, Ruifang becomes a strict disciplinarian, desperate to ensure that the sacrifices she and Zhigang are making for Candace’s future will pay off. She becomes the villain of Candace’s childhood, doling out harsh punishments and encouraging Candace to Americanize her identity.

After Zhigang’s death, Ruifang is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Candace moves back in with her and cares for her in her final days. Ruifang regrets their estrangement and talks wistfully about their lost bond. Before her death, she urges Candace to do something useful with herself, a plea that informs Candace’s entire approach to adult life.

Ruifang remains present in the narrative after her death through Candace’s omnipresent memories of her. As an adult, Candace reenacts many of her mother’s rituals, and her recollections of Ruifang are triggered by things as minor as seeing a familiar brand of skin cream.

Ruifang appears as a vision in the final chapters, guiding her daughter to freedom and helping her self-actualize, healing their broken relationship. The vision of Ruifang warns Candace that after her escape, they will not see one another again for a long time, implying that Candace needs to let go of her regrets about their relationship to move on from her past.

Zhigang is Candace’s late father. He was the catalyst for the family’s move to the United States, seeking better financial opportunities for all of them. Once in the US, he spends most of his time at work, determined to climb the social ladder and prove to his unhappy wife and daughter that the decision to move was worth it. Zhigang buys into the American dream but believes that he must earn his place in his new country through hard work. He declares that “work is its own reward” (273) and takes pride in being a “worker bee,” values which Candace tries to adopt as an adult.

Through unrelenting hard work, Zhigang acquires several promotions and fulfills his goal of improving his family’s living circumstances. He tries to soothe his family’s homesickness by emphasizing all the experiences and objects they can buy in America, a practice which contributes to Candace’s tendency to over-value material objects as she grows up.

Zhigang is aware that he’s sacrificing his own wellbeing for the sake of his family; he once tells Candace a story about a hardworking man who chases success but warns her that it doesn’t have a happy ending. He seems to accept the preexisting narrative of the overworked but upwardly mobile first-generation immigrant. Zhigang is killed in a car accident when Candace is an adolescent, leaving her with few memories of their relationship. Although his material success allows Candace to live a more comfortable life, he leaves behind a traumatized and fractured family. His story leads to the question of the true meaning of success and the real cost of giving your life to work.

Bob is an ex-IT worker and the leader of the survivor group which forms after the End. After the collapse of traditional power structures, Bob creates his own hierarchy with himself at the top as he leads his fellow survivors to the Facility, an abandoned mall where he used to spend his unhappy childhood. Although Candace usually thrives under clear-cut rules, she balks at Bob’s faux-religious façade and the violence he inflicts on others.

Bob discovers Candace’s pregnancy and believes that her baby is a miracle meant to give hope to the survivors. He imprisons her within a L’Occitane store at the Facility but is eventually persuaded to let her roam around the mall for the sake of the baby’s health. One night, Bob succumbs to the nostalgia triggered by his surroundings and contracts Shen Fever, allowing Candace to grab his car keys and escape.

Jonathan is Candace’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her unborn child. A staunch anti-capitalist, Jonathan rejects nine-to-five working culture, instead scraping by as a freelance writer. He encourages Candace to quit her job to pursue her artistic goals. Although Jonathan made the choice to walk away from office jobs after one bad experience, he doesn’t understand that Candace’s decision is much more complex due to her background and her family’s history with money. Although their differences lead them to fight often, they love each other deeply, and Candace’s memories of Jonathan resurface often after their breakup.

Jonathan makes the decision to leave New York before Shen Fever spreads, so his fate is ultimately unknown. While skewing the flaws of capitalism, Jonathan’s character is used to show that blanket anti-consumerism can be reductive and unhelpful. Quitting may have been the right choice for Jonathan, but not everybody can just check out of capitalism.

Balthasar is an Operations Director at the printing company Phoenix Ltd. in Shenzhen. While showing Candace around the facility, he holds a conversation with her which prompts her to dust off her rusty Mandarin. Balthasar is the one to tell Candace that her Chinese name comes from a famous poem. After Shen Fever hits, Balthasar corresponds with Candace via email to let her know that 70 percent of the Phoenix Ltd. workers are ill and that his own daughter is fevered. He encourages her to leave New York and go find her family. Candace’s brief friendship with Balthasar is a conduit for her to explore her estrangement from her Chinese heritage.