Trust Exercise

Initially, Karen is a peripheral character in Sarah's story. Then, she is a wronged ex-friend of a writer. As the story progresses in the third section, however, these distinctions collapse. Karen may actually be a combination of Joelle, Julietta, and Pammie, as she claims "Sarah" presented her; she may be "Karen," as she presents herself; or she may actually be Sarah, too, as the events of the third section imply.

Although Karen has a rich internal life, her interest in performing and her early experiences initially define her in terms of her body. Karen left CAPA to have her baby junior year, then went to study dance at Carnegie Mellon after graduation. Though these are seemingly unrelated, they both involve the body, as though Karen learned through her experience with Martin that this was her primary value. However, Karen has since left performing arts and is now training as a therapist. This shows that she has left the idea of performing behind—until Martin shows up with his play. When this happens, she brings herself to the stage again as a performer yet uses her position to inflict injury on his body.

As she appears in the second section, "Karen" is an organized person with an excellent memory. She is primarily defined by her antipathy towards others. The disorganization of others, especially David and “Karen’s” mother, appears to annoy her as an indication of their self-centeredness. She looks down on her mother for profiting from her relationships with men. She also disdains those who focus too much on the past, such as when Sarah tries to ask about her brother or when David remembers his days at CAPA fondly. Yet "Karen" is perhaps the most bound up in past events of all of them, as she ends up shooting "Martin." Her motives in this are unclear; what is clear is that Martin hurt her deeply years ago and that this has likely led to her distrust of people in general.

The protagonist of the third section, Claire is the biological daughter of either Karen or Sarah and Lord ("Mr. Kingsley" in the earlier sections). Claire is hesitant and feels guilty about tracking down her birth mother and has turned to a form of online therapy with "Listeners" to help her make decisions about this quest. However, the multiplicity of views does not provide her with useful guidance.

In her mid-to-late 20s, Claire wants to please people. She fears hurting her adopted mother so much that she does not start the search for her birth parents in earnest until her adopted mother has died; even then, she feels guilty. She hesitates to speak in front of Lord; moreover, she knows her tendency in tense situations so well that she has prepared in advance by writing out a note for him. Like Sarah and Karen, she is self-aware and intelligent, yet her power to act is limited. Even when she takes actions that unquestionably protect herself, such as pushing Lord off of her on the roof, she feels compelled to apologize for them. 

At the start of the novel, David is 15 years old and defined by his differences with his girlfriend, Sarah. She is private, he is public; she is from the lower-middle class, he is from the upper class. However, as the narrative continues, David takes on characteristics that align him more with the other men in the book than with Sarah. Notably, "Karen" sees him, Mr. Kingsley, and Martin as all belonging to the Elite Brotherhood of the Arts, an imaginary, exclusively male organization she sees as encompassing tastemakers in the performing arts.

As an adult, David has become overly nostalgic and obsessed with the past. Although he sees himself as sympathetic towards women, notably encouraging "Karen" to audition for plays and attempting to stroke her ego, he does not believe that Martin assaulted his student. His lack of understanding and sympathy for victims extends to his willingness to mount and direct Martin's play. This type of limitation is further shown in David's promotion of Sarah's book: He is interested only in the fact that she published it, not in the content. This indicates a fundamental lack of curiosity on David's part, as well as an unwillingness to dive too deeply into the stories of others. 

Although the final section reveals that Mr. Kingsley and Lord are the same character, they appear differently in the first two sections than in the third. In the first two sections, Mr. Kingsley is a happily coupled gay man. He is stern with his students, though his occasional approval of them makes up for this and endears him to them. He occasionally oversteps boundaries, such as when he calls Sarah's mother or when he lets Manuel keep his new shirts at his house. Having parties for his students is the most egregious overstepping of these boundaries, though the last party in the first section happens without his apparent knowledge or approval. He commands profound respect, both because of his history as a Broadway performer and because of his talent as a teacher.

This respect is also true of Lord, who is venerated by the school in the last section after his death (and prior to the allegations made against him). However, this character deliberately works to intimidate those in his presence, as he does when Claire visits him. Claire, perhaps based on Sarah's book, anticipated a kind gay man but finds that Lord is neither. Instead, Lord corners her with an unwanted sexual advance. This is made all the more sinister when it is revealed that Claire might be his daughter and that he might have already known this.

Both the names "Kingsley" and "Lord" indicate the power that the character has over the students. They see him as a king, a lord, or even God. In every section, the character abuses this power in different ways—whether by overstepping boundaries, as Mr. Kingsley does with Sarah, or by engaging in outright abuse, as Lord did with either Sarah or Karen.

While Martin may be nothing more than a facet of Mr. Kingsley/Lord's persona, he appears in the first two sections of the book as an autonomous character. A 40-year-old drama teacher from Bournemouth, England, Martin chaperones his students for their trip to CAPA. Martin enjoys wordplay and being the center of attention. He begins an affair with Karen, leading to her pregnancy. However, Martin has no interest in pursuing a long-term relationship with Karen, sending her only perfunctory messages and failing to appear at the airport when she shows up in London.

Martin's ambitions extend further than teaching, as he demonstrates when he submits his play to David. This play provides insight into Martin's view of himself: an affable publican whose affair with a tempting young woman leads to his downfall. The woman herself is left far more mysterious, as Martin has a seeming disinterest in understanding her, mirroring his disinterest in understanding Karen other than sexually. At the end of the second section, Karen shoots Martin in the groin, wounding him but not killing him, physically paralleling the damage he has done to her psychologically.

Choi leads the reader to question Martin's existence, as she shows that a student had a baby likely fathered by Mr. Kingsley/Lord in the final section. Karen described having a baby by Martin in the second section, though Karen and Sarah's unique identities are questionable. Likewise, the baby's father is revealed in the third section to be someone from the area around the school, making Mr. Kingsley/Lord more likely to be the father than Martin. This also throws into question whether Mr. Kingsley/Lord and Martin are one, two, or three separate characters.

A 24-year-old actor, Liam is the star of Candide and a former student of Martin's. Both Sarah and Karen describe Liam as good-looking, although with a lack of charisma that is off-putting; Karen does not find him as attractive as Sarah does. Liam has Martin's self-absorption, though he has a strong attraction for Sarah. In bed with her, he uses dirty talk that disgusts her. He either has difficulty reading Sarah's signals or is uninterested in understanding her feelings; he wants to stay alone with her upstairs and insists on this, even when she makes it clear she would rather leave.

When the girls visit Liam in England, they learn that Liam's mother spoils him. Sarah is unimpressed by his home situation. As sophisticated as he seemed in their hometown, he now appears unattractive and immature in his own context. 

Elli (Karen's mother) and Sarah's mother are foils, yet they share a deep concern for their daughters.

In Elli's case, this concern manifests as excitement about Karen's social circle. Elli gets the British students to stay at their house; later, "Karen" reveals that "Sarah" also lived with them for a time. Elli presents herself more as a peer than as a mother; when Sarah calls, needing help, Elli sends a cab for her and allows her to stay without asking her too many questions. However, Karen resents Elli's relationships with men and her disorganization. In the first section, Sarah's narration indicates that Elli had a problem with her daughter going out with a 40-year-old man, but Karen's narration in the second section indicates that Elli encouraged this relationship. As an adult, Karen later leaves New York City, then Los Angeles, as her mother tracks her down, indicating that she may hold her mother in part accountable for the events with Martin.

Meanwhile, Sarah's mother takes a stricter stance. She has many rules for Sarah, and the two of them get into arguments about money, about driving, and about Mr. Kingsley's involvement in Sarah's life. However, Sarah's mother seems to enjoy spending time with her, and even lets her take their only car to school once Sarah has her license. In the first section, Sarah even seems to mourn the loss of their previous closeness. At some points, the two characters are not speaking to each other; this tension is reinforced in Karen's section, as Karen remembers Sarah staying at Karen's house. Karen remembers more difficult aspects of the relationship between Sarah and her mother, which Sarah does not discuss: her mother's disability, for example, as well as Sarah's apparently deliberate car accident after their fight.