“The Hit-Thumb Theory” by Elizabeth Strout centered around the complexity of Charlie, a man who was cheating on his wife with a prostitute that he has fallen in love with. He resents everything about his wife but feels pity for her and remembers times when he was overwhelmingly in love with her. He also has feelings of animosity towards Tracy, the prostitute/mistress, even almost hitting her. He’s got what I’m assuming is PTSD from the Vietnam War and he’s got some tension with religion. There’s a lot going on in a relatively short story but my favorite thing about this story was that Charlie was not a good guy driving around doing nice things, he was unlikable in a lot of places, sometimes sympathetic, which is very human. He was very reactive to things, which also seems true to how humans behave, and all of his flaws and history created a complex character.

It was interesting to have the man that Patty Nicely was in love with, back in “Windmills” be cheating on his wife. The fact that he had a wife so Patty dismissed the idea of him loving her was such a prevalent issue in her version of the story. To have him cheating on his wife with a prostitute in another story shows how different people are under the surface. It’d be very interesting to see a story from Marilyn’s point of view because she seems incredibly damaged and the people around her view her so negatively. After this story, she’s the character in this book that I’ve felt the most pity for.

Strout shows a lot about Charlie’s character through his interactions with other people and his views of other people. The change in view of his wife shows how damaged he’s become. The way he tolerates her phone call but gives her no real sympathy shows that he hasn’t got the heart to ignore her but he also doesn’t have the ability to comfort her. This seems to be a common theme with him. A very telling scene about Charlie that Strout included was the scene with his son shopping. He was so proud of his son for putting up with his wife trying to pick out a sweatshirt. He calls him “clean.” He wants to tell him that he’s a good guy and that’s he proud of him, but he is unable to. This scene had nothing to do with the narrative at hand, the one with Tracy, but by including it Strout is able to show another side of Charlie and another level to his complexity.

Another example of this was Charlie’s interaction with the memorial and the tourists who “respected” him while he cried. It’s a moment of weakness and a rare moment of him letting his guard down and being surprised by the outcome. This moment, I think, allows for the revelation at the end, about how frightening it is when people don’t feel pain. Throughout the story Charlie does not feel much pain and had he felt no pain at all or never had a moment where he let his guard down and was respected for it, then I’m not sure I would buy the ending as much as I did. I also think it’s very true to character that he has trouble overcoming that in the last line.