The Things She's Seen

Isobel Catching is an Aboriginal teenager who has the supernatural power to exist simultaneously in different facets of reality; Beth calls her a “conduit” (188) for people who exist on the different sides of existence. Catching is the novel’s deuteragonist and the second of its two narrators. When Beth and her father first encounter Catching in the hospital, Catching is wearing a long green sweater that her now-deceased mother made for her. Although the sweater is not expertly made and is too long, Catching is attached to it because it represents her mother’s love for her. The vivid color of her sweater, like the list of ancestresses that Catching’s mother teaches her, associates Catching with the hope and strength of the other Aboriginal women in the novel.

Beth states that “everything about [Catching is] sharp, from her angled cheekbones to the spikiness of her hair and the glint in her dark eyes” (21). Catching asks to be called not by her first name but by her last; this preference highlights her task of “catching” and mastering her emotions even as it emphasizes her role in “catching” the novel’s antagonists, Bell and Sholt. Her desire to go by her last name also conveys her pride in her lineage and her identification with the strong women who have come before her. Catching is sarcastic, abrupt, and scornful in her initial conversations with Michael because her experiences have hardened her and taught her to be mistrustful of others.

Despite her sharp and skeptical nature, Catching’s narrative voice is poetic and sensitive. The chapters narrated from her first-person perspective are rendered in verse and use metaphor and allegory to veil the precise details of the sexual violence that Catching has experienced. This technique indirectly conveys the horrific nature of sexual violence, for even a mind as tough as Catching’s flinches from the details of her traumatic experience, and Catching can only use indirect language to describe what happened to her. Catching’s story about the Fetchers and the Feeds also demonstrates her strength and her belief in the power of hope and renewal. Catching says that she needs Beth hear her story, but Beth later realizes that Catching has also been using this story to help Beth understand how to move on.

Michael Teller is Beth’s father. Although Beth remembers him as a “muscly tanned guy” (3), his grief over Beth’s recent death has reduced him to “a pale shell of a man” (3). Michael is a senior detective with a strong belief in justice, racial equality, and ethical policing. Beth says that her father “pretty much [takes] all injustice personally, but especially anything to do with Aboriginal people not being treated right” (129). Michael cares deeply about others, especially young people; he is upset by the treatment of the children at the government home, and he shows Catching real compassion and understanding despite her prickly attitude and his mistaken belief that she killed four men. Michael disapproves of his own police-officer father’s unequal administration of justice. He has had no contact with his own parents since he pursued a relationship with Beth’s Aboriginal mother; his parents threw him out of the house due to their prejudice against Aboriginal people.

Beth’s mother died when Beth was still a baby, and afterward, Michael found a new purpose in taking care of Beth. Now that Beth has also died, Michael struggles to find a reason to go on living. Although he loves Beth intensely, he unintentionally prevents her from moving on to the afterlife. A common Aboriginal belief is that speaking the name of the dead or viewing images of them can call the dead person’s spirit back and interfere with their transition to the next phase of existence. It is clear from the very beginning of the narrative that Michael is unable to honor the expectation that he will not speak Beth’s name, for he tells her ghost “I miss you, Beth” (4).

Investigating the fire at the children’s home causes the first changes in Michael’s character. After he learns that the unidentified man who died there was stabbed, Michael starts to feel that he has a purpose again. Beth is pleased when Michael takes a renewed interest in the investigation and his life. After he hears the ending of Catching’s story, he is transformed again, and although lines sorrow are etched into his face, Beth also sees him standing up straight again for the first time, and he looks to her like his old self. By the end of the novel, he can finally focus on what is best for his daughter, and he lets Beth go.

Although she is initially introduced in Catching’s narrative as “Crow,” this character was once an ordinary Aboriginal girl named Sarah Blue, who was also a close childhood friend of officer Allie Hartley. A week before Sarah turned 15, she was abducted by Bell and Sholt and died at their hands in the underground bunker near the children’s home. In Catching’s narrative, Sarah’s spirit still lingers in the room where Bell and Sholt’s victims are kept. Now called “Crow,” she takes on the responsibility of helping the girls and young women who are abducted and brought to the bunker.

Until Catching arrives, Crow’s understanding of how to help these girls and women is limited to telling them to give in to death in order to avoid excessive pain. As far as she knows, the only way to escape the suffering that Bell and Sholt inflict is to become “gray”—numb and dead inside—and then to literally die. Her ghost is unable to affect the physical world, and she believes that escape from the bunker is impossible. Catching’s arrival changes things for Crow, who begins to absorb Catching’s courage and determination. Through Catching, Crow realizes that hope can be regained even after all seems lost; this shift is symbolized by the return of her colors. Because of Catching, Crow regains the ability to interact with the material world. She then uses this ability to attack and kill Bell, Sholt, Flint, and Cavanagh, making it possible for both herself and Catching to escape their imprisonment.

Aunty Viv is one of Beth’s mother’s sisters and is a core part of the strong family matrix. Beth describes Viv as her “round, bubbly Aunty who [makes] every space brighter just by being in it” (9). Viv’s generosity of spirit is demonstrated through Beth’s memory of accidentally substituting salt for sugar when she made Aunty Viv a birthday cake: Aunty Viv nearly succeeded in eating a whole slice before throwing up, and she told Beth that it was “the best cake ever” (18). Viv takes care of her appearance and enjoys bright colors and festively painted nails.

Aunty Viv was the person driving the car on the day that Beth was killed. Although the accident was not Viv’s fault, she initially struggled with feelings of guilt and wished that she had been killed instead of Beth. Beth noticed that, for a while after the accident, Aunty Viv neglected her appearance. Even though Beth was sure that Viv could not hear her, Beth tried to remind Viv that her own children needed her. Betha also reassured Viv that she herself did not wish that Viv had died instead of her. After this, Viv found hope again. In this way, Aunty Viv functions as a foil for Michael Teller, for although she, too, is grieving Beth, she does not allow her despair and guilt to overwhelm her as Michael does.