A History Of Wild Places

Maggie St. James is the author of the macabre children’s books, the Eloise and the Foxtail series, in which a young girl goes in search of a fictional place called the underground that turns her into a monster. Maggie experiences deep guilt about several stories of real children searching for “the underground,” including one instance in which a 14-year-old boy died of hypothermia in Alaska. She goes to Pastoral in search of her father after her mother reveals that she was born in the community to its founder, Cooper.

Once there, she becomes hypnotized by the new leader, Levi, and later marries Theo (Travis Wren). Like him, she is a dynamic character. In Pastoral, she is initially characterized as fearful and committed to preserving the status quo of the community. She is horrified by Theo’s decision to cross the boundary repeatedly. Theo sees her as mercurial and amazing, but also deceitful. He initially characterizes his wife as “a curiosity, a woman who feels like an endangered creature—a thing I don’t deserve” (46). Calla is particularly fearful of the rot. When Colette’s baby is born, she is upset by the baby’s potential death but notes that “the other pang sparking in my chest is louder, the screaming fear: We can’t go past the trees” (113). While she is aware of the dichotomy between her two impulses, she is initially prone to inaction.

Calla’s character trajectory involves her growing sense of her complicity in the community’s actions, particularly the executions of two other members, Ash and Turk. She takes more action as the narrative progresses, eventually escaping from Pastoral. Calla makes a conscious decision to overcome her fear despite her mistrust: “Perhaps it has betrayed me, made me coil into myself when I should have stared down the road like my husband […] I want to do what’s right, not what fear has made me feel” (190). She makes peace with her time in Pastoral and decides to return to the community, which has positively changed since her escape.

Along with Calla and Theo, Bee is one of the novel’s protagonists and a complex character. Bee was born in Pastoral and believes she is Calla’s sister for much of the novel. She is reportedly blind, having supposedly lost her sight at the age of 19, but it is revealed that this is a result of Levi’s hypnosis rather than an ocular condition. Because of her lack of sight, she is particularly attuned to sound and tactile sensations. Her first-person narration includes extensive and vivid descriptions of auditory and physical sensory details. She notes that “the world comes to me in ravenous hues and disjointed shapes” (560). Bee’s role in the community is also connected to her heightened senses, as she attends births to listen to the babies’ hearts and lungs. Levi, with whom she has a sexual relationship, also relies on her to relay important information about the community that she overhears. Physically, Calla describes Bee as “a rare, wild creature” with “golden-red hair” that is “long and unruly” (52). Calla also views Bee as reckless and prone to getting too close to the border.

This is accurate, as Bee experiences a strong pull toward the outside world. She is described as adventurous and fond of exploration. This contrasts with her feelings for Levi, which she experiences as a pull inward. Both his hypnosis and their history of friendship from childhood influence the closeness she feels with him, even after she realizes its negative effect on her. She experiences severe internal conflict due to his emotional abuse. For example, she notes, “Maybe he’s right, and I kept this reckless devotion for him tucked safely inside myself where it couldn’t be seen. Maybe he never knew how I truly felt: how much I needed him […] Maybe this is my fault” (138). The confrontation between Levi and Bee when she announces her pregnancy and he announces his intention to marry someone else is a low point in her character arc, and he gaslights her once again. From this point in the novel, she returns to nature to recenter herself without his influence. In doing so, she finds her own strength, which culminates in her confronting Levi and killing him when he attacks her. She replaces Levi as Pastoral’s head figure after Calla and Theo escape, representing her dynamic character arc from follower to leader.