Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual harassment and child sexual abuse.

“It was in this car that Naomi and I talked most often. We’d park, and then she’d lean across the armrest to press her cheek to mine, and I’d sometimes allow her to kiss me. Other times we’d move to the back. […] This car was her prized possession, and like many commuters, she had turned the machine into an extension of her body.”

The interior of Naomi Shah’s car affects a claustrophobic and insular narrative mood. This is the setting where the majority of Griffin Hurt’s relationship with Naomi takes place. His descriptions of their experiences inside the vehicle encapsulate his complex emotional response to their relationship. The images of Naomi leaning “across the armrest,” “pressing her cheek” to Griffin’s, or “moving to the back” suggest that Naomi feels in control in the car. Indeed, the Mercedes is “an extension of her body”—she is thus ensnaring Griffin in this space as if inside herself. These dynamics establish the complicated Influence of Adult Relationships on Adolescent Development.

“Naomi wanted to know how we did the special effects—the atomic eye blasts and flying sequences. I was explaining chroma-keying to her, how we’d hang from wires in front of a green screen, when I suddenly stopped. My expression changed. I turned away and, through my nose, forced all the breath from my chest. It was a trick I’d learned in order to make myself tear up.”

Griffin’s manipulation of his demeanor and emotions in this scene introduces the novel’s theme of the Dichotomy Between Public Image and Private Reality. Griffin is literally sitting with Naomi, one of his parents’ friends, but he internally transports himself elsewhere. He inhabits an alternate version of self and performs a part for Naomi’s benefit. In doing so, Griffin evidences his discomfort with his true self and his way of using acting to navigate his complex relationships.