The Paradise Problem

William “West” Weston, known to his family as Liam, is Anna’s husband and the male protagonist of the novel. His first-person narration alternates with Anna’s and reveals that he is a deeply honest person who is guided by his own integrity, even though he has been forced to make unethical choices due to his family connections. When Anna marries Liam during their college years, he is temporarily without money. He is “infrequently verbal, and one of those incredibly capable men who make complicated things like doing taxes and fixing holes in drywall look easy” (1). Anna’s admiration for and attraction to Liam is evident from the start, as is his attraction to her. He is physically and mentally strong, representing the kind of man that people rely on and trust. Liam’s primary weakness can be found in the emotional turmoil that he experiences because of his family connections.

Liam’s internal and external conflicts are derived from his problematic relationship with his father, Ray, who insists that Liam “step into his corrupt shoes” (141). Ray’s corruption has led Liam to abandon the family business and embrace a new career in academia. At a young age, Liam’s ingenuity and passion for computers allowed him to create PISA, an inventory-tracking system that Ray subsequently corrupted and used to harass employees; when this plan backfired publicly, Ray then used Liam as a scapegoat for the resulting scandal. As the events at Charlie’s wedding unfold, the fallout of this years-old event fuels the central conflict; because Liam is driven to be the opposite of his father and to put the needs of his family before his own needs, he paradoxically believes that he must acquiesce to his father’s wishes to prove himself the better man.

Liam’s struggles develop The Tension Between Romantic and Familial Loyalty and The Complex Motivations Behind Marriage. While both Liam and Anna were motivated to marry each other for financial reasons, Liam’s serious and steady personality conflicts with his decision to elope, thereby raising his family’s suspicions about his motivations for marrying Anna. Liam struggles with the ethical implications of his sham marriage, especially given that he is now paying someone as honest as Anna to act a part for his benefit. However, although his marriage to Anna is based on a lie, his growing love for her forces him to confront the question of whether his siblings would be loyal to him if they were in a similar situation. Ultimately, Liam is the character who changes most dynamically, and by the end of the novel, he gains the courage to put himself first and to challenge his father, even though he knows that Ray is fully capable of ruining him in a very public fashion. By risking his family ties, his professional reputation, and his money, Liam fully exercises the power of his convictions, and his transformation is the result of Anna’s influence. Thus, he finally frees himself and his entire family from Ray’s toxic grip.

David Green is Anna’s father; he has raised her since his wife left many years ago. As an archetypal “good dad,” David serves as a foil for Ray Weston. Although David does not appear until the final chapters, he is characterized throughout the novel by Anna’s love for him and her explicit comparisons between his love and Ray’s mistreatment of Liam and his siblings. A single dad who taught Anna to value love, loyalty, and happiness over money, David represents the opposite of everything that Ray espouses. Because he rarely appears in the novel, he does not engage in the novel’s conflicts except as a sounding board for Anna, and he remains a solid symbol of good parenting who represents the value of personal authenticity and familial loyalty. David encourages Anna to forgive Liam for buying her paintings without telling her and urges her to stay loyal to Liam despite her worries that he might choose his family fortune over himself. David reminds Anna that “intent matters” and that Liam is “backed into a corner” (300). His stamp of approval allows Anna to forgive Liam.

David’s struggles with cancer also represent The Societal Impact of Class Differences. Anna makes this conflict explicit when she explains, “[B]ecause our healthcare system is a nightmare, [David is] underinsured. And he’s a mechanic, you know, so even though he owns his own shop it’s not like he has a pension or paid medical leave” (247). As Anna pays David’s bills by working three jobs at the expense of her potential art career, the authors use her situation to illustrate the realistic struggles that many Americans endure. This aspect of the story also emphasizes the callous extravagance of the Westons, who spend many times David’s medical debt on their daughter’s wedding. Nevertheless, David’s probable recovery and unflagging support for Anna contribute to the novel’s happy ending. Liam ultimately shows his admiration and gratitude by buying David a house so that he can live nearby. Through David, the novel implies that love and loyalty are the only things that bring true happiness, but money is also essential for physical well-being.

Ray Weston, Liam’s father and the current CEO of Weston Foods, is the novel’s antagonist. He is an archetypal villain who exhibits narcissistic tendencies and is incapable of change and unwilling to learn from the past. Physically and emotionally, he is “oddly compact, [...] wiry, unsmiling, irritation hovering like a cloud around him” (67). This cloud hangs around Ray throughout the novel, and he is portrayed as shallow, selfish, and emotionally volatile. He is so focused on his reputation that he was once willing to let a teenage Liam take the blame for his abuses of the PISA system. He also pits his eldest sons against one another and uses threats and “leverage” to bend them to his will. Because Liam left the corporation due to Ray’s callousness, Ray has made it his mission to force his son to rejoin Weston Foods as CEO. Ray claims that his motivation is Liam’s qualification for the job, but Liam suggests that Ray only cares about exerting his will on others. When Ray tells a reporter from Forbes that Liam is taking over as CEO, he demonstrates the deception that he is willing to undertake to get his way. By using his daughter’s wedding to stage the announcement, he demonstrates his inability to put anyone’s interests ahead of his own.

Ray’s attempts to dominate and manipulate others, especially his children, make him an abusive father. Ray is also abusive to anyone he sees as “beneath” him, and he spontaneously gets a server fired after he knocks a tray of drinks out of her hands. When he scoffs, “She’s in the service industry. [...] It’s her job to be invisible” (257), he reveals the true level of his disregard for anyone other than himself, and his disdain also reveals The Societal Impact of Class Differences in their most poisonous form. Ray dismisses anyone who lacks wealth or power, and his inability to comprehend that someone would willingly give up such advantages explains his failure to control Liam. He is certain that Liam will sacrifice himself to preserve his own wealth and his siblings’ wealth, and he believes that the rest of his children are too consumed with money to challenge him. Ray’s comeuppance at the end of the novel is made ironic by this belief. When Ray is sent to prison for a host of corporate crimes, he loses his wealth, his power, his lover, and finally his wife, and his downfall enables the family to move past his influence, thereby cementing the novel’s happily-ever-after ending.

Liam’s mother, Janet Weston, holds a nebulous position of authority within Weston Foods and attempts to keep the wedding events on track whenever her husband’s impulses threaten to derail them. Liam’s parents both represent The Societal Impact of Class Differences and the issue of Preserving Authenticity Amidst Pretense, but Janet most closely embodies the idea that wealth and social pretense are intertwined. Even her physical appearance reflects this idea, for as the narrative states, she is a tall blond socialite with “an extremely deft plastic surgeon, because she somehow looks like a twenty-five-year-old sixty-year-old” (68). This detail mirrors her insistence on maintaining a perfectly crafted outward appearance. Janet is an avatar of excess who wears Gucci and gold jewelry to go snorkeling, and for her, each day is an exercise in covering up any hint of authenticity that is less than perfect.

However, it is also evident that Janet has a soft spot for Liam. With everyone else, she is ruthlessly stern, and she often uses passive-aggressive comments to antagonize Anna; rather than apologizing, she insists that it is just a period of hazing. She tells Liam that her own mother-in-law once scared her to death, and now it’s her turn. Although her other daughter-in-law, Blaire, assures Anna that she and Janet have become friends, Janet is obviously embarrassed by Blaire, who makes bawdy comments, drinks too much, and chastises Alex and Liam when their competition becomes a problem. Blaire’s authenticity, like Anna’s, is an insult to the illusion of perfection that Janet values. This illusion extends to the demands that she makes of her children, for although she loves them, she also defers to her husband’s toxicity and condones his manipulations even when she might be able to stop them. When Janet finally divorces Ray at the end of the novel, she demonstrates that she is finally capable of change, and the narrative suggests that her own opinions have been hidden beneath her veneer of wifely loyalty.