The Paradise Problem

Wealth is a primary focus for many of the characters in the novel, and this emphasis demonstrates that the societal impacts of wealth or its lack create misery on both ends of the social spectrum. By juxtaposing Liam’s privileged family and professional life with Anna’s poverty-stricken circumstances, the authors implicitly critique the often unearned power and privilege that arise from extreme wealth, and the unfolding complications highlight the many social problems that such a disparity creates.

This theme is introduced in the first chapter when Anna gets fired by Ricky, a teenager who is undeservingly promoted to manage his parents’ convenience store; once he gains this power, he wields it to take revenge on Anna for denying him a date. This experience is a small preview of the much more virulent revenge that Ray Weston tries to exact on those who defy him. Although the two characters differ greatly in degree, several parallels exist between Ricky and Ray; Ricky gets his power through the business that his parents have given him to manage, just as Ray has inherited his position as CEO of the company that his parents built. Similarly, Ricky fires Anna for the small error of taking a pack of gum, while Ray fires the server Thuy even though his own clumsiness causes her to spill the drinks on her tray. Additionally, just as Ricky spies on Anna by watching hours of surveillance tapes, Ray misuses the PISA system to surveil and sexually harass his employees. The authors use these implicit parallels to suggest that some people are naturally inclined to abuse their money or social position to manipulate others and behave as petty tyrants.

Ray’s petty tyranny makes the Weston siblings miserable, even though they have all the material privileges they could want. Only Liam tries to use his money to help others, and although he does not use his wealth as a weapon, he benefits from these privileges and often takes his advantages for granted. For example, he casually reveals that all the Weston children are given management positions within the family company at an early age and admits that “Raymond Weston never met a nepo baby he didn’t like” (55). Additionally, the cavalier ease with which Liam pays Anna $100,000 to ensure the safety of his siblings’ inheritances indicates that for him, money simply is not an issue, and he has little understanding of the toil that Anna endures to earn a mere pittance. Throughout the novel, the authors imply that by focusing on inheriting money and position, wealthy families like the Westons consolidate their power and make it more difficult for others to close the income gap.

The societal impacts of this disparity are most prominently developed through the anecdote about Ray firing the loyal dock manager and through David Green’s cancer diagnosis. Because David is a mechanic who owns his own shop, he is underinsured and has no pension or paid medical leave, so Anna works five nights a week at the convenience store, “three lunch shifts at Amir’s cafe, the occasional dog-walking hustle, and plasma donation when things get really tight” (6) to help pay his medical bills. Despite her herculean efforts, even this combined income is not enough to cover the costs involved. Only her connection to Liam enables Anna to fully support him, but Liam’s self-imposed position as an outcast among his siblings suggests that his generosity is the exception to the rule; more often than not, people like Anna are forced to tolerate bosses like Ricky in order to survive, and it takes people like Liam—those who have both scruples and social power—to change corporate and societal culture for the better by using their own resources to help people who have been hurt by these class-based disparities.

The novel’s focus on romance, family, and marriage extensively explores the benefits and limits of loyalty. The contrasting dynamics of Anna and Liam’s respective families emphasize these ideas in different ways, with the Greens representing pure loyalty, trust, and authenticity while the Westons represent selfishness, infighting, and betrayal. For Anna, loyalty is a straightforward exchange; those who show loyalty have earned it in return. Because Anna knows that David Green will support her unconditionally, she has the strength to be herself and to make her own decisions; she knows that loyalty has nothing to do with money, and this confidence helps her to place a higher value on traits such as honesty and integrity. By contrast, Anna’s mother has a distinct lack of loyalty, as illustrated in her early abandonment of the family and her insistence upon toying with their emotions. Anna’s mother would “call every few months and tell [David] she missed him and wanted to come home […] and then remember that she was above it all and leave again” (205). This damaging behavior is tied to her mistake of valuing societal pretense and wealth over genuine family life, and Anna has sustained lasting damage because of her mother’s callous approach. The behavior of Anna’s mother aligns with that of the Weston clan, for although they claim to value family loyalty, the only thing they truly value is money.

For Liam, the Westons’ false equivalence between loyalty to family and loyalty to money creates the central conflict, for he must ultimately sacrifice his happiness to remain loyal to his family and protect his siblings’ inheritances. (His grandfather’s stipulation about the inheritance has “made loyalty and servitude the bargaining chips that keep the money flowing” (317).) Even at the end of the novel, when Alex ultimately does the “right” thing, he is more powerfully motivated by his loyalty to his inheritance than by his emotional connection to Liam. Because of the Weston family’s dysfunction, Liam cannot understand Anna’s version of loyalty. When she says that she would still want to be on his team even if he didn’t have a penny, her forthrightness inspires something that “feels like anger. Or dread. Or fear” (194). Because of his family, Liam cannot understand the feeling that he only later describes as “the comfort of having an ally” (203).

Anna and Liam’s relationship is shaped—and almost ended—by these disparate views of loyalty. Because Liam cannot instinctively be loyal to his principles, even for his own good, Anna wonders whether he is “too broken” for a relationship between them to work. When her father reminds her that caring about someone means “they deserve the benefit of the doubt” (300), Anna is reminded that Liam is not motivated by the same loyalties as the rest of his family. When he chooses his happiness and a life with Anna over his family’s money, he shows where his loyalties lie, and she returns his loyalty by flying to Palo Alto to support him. When the novel concludes with Liam gaining personal freedom, David regaining his health, and Anna earning recognition as an artist, the authors emphasize the importance of loyalty as a principle, but the story also emphasizes the importance of carefully choosing where that loyalty is placed.