The Rabbit Hutch

Jack is the only character to be granted a first-person narrative, which gives an immediate insight into his thoughts. Like Blandine, he was a foster kid who aged out of the system and, following an independence workshop, seeks to make an adult life in Vacca Vale. However, in line with the theme of being Orphaned by the Authorities: Foster Kids and Vacca Vale’s Economy, Jack feels that his prospects are few. He shifts between temporary, minimum-wage jobs like walking developer Maxwell Pinky’s dogs.

As one of three roommates who are obsessed with Blandine, Jack is continually comparing himself to Malik and Todd. He judges that he is average-looking with a poorly proportioned body “like I was designed by a five-year-old” (67). However, he thinks that his personality more than makes up for it.

While Jack is intuitive, noting things like Blandine’s obsessive hand scrubbing and attributing it to trauma, he cannot escape The Social Conditioning of Gender, which forces boys to bond through violence. He is the one who masterminds the animal sacrifices, charging ahead even as he despairs at the sight of animal suffering. This is partly because disconnected Jack longs to feel something. His cruelty escalates as he joins Malik in forcing Todd to participate against his will, and in the final act, he strips off Blandine’s clothes in an act of humiliation. In Jack, Gunty creates a well-rounded character who unites a likable, matter-of-fact demeanor with the compulsion to be cruel.

Handsome, charismatic, and musically talented Malik is the luckiest of the foster kids in C4. He has a good relationship with his former foster parents, who invite him over for the holidays, and his good looks enable him to nurture a social media following. He dreams of becoming a Hollywood actor. His arrogance is conveyed with good humor by Jack, who notes the comic feat of Malik whipping off his shirt to show off his muscled physique whenever Blandine comes home. His lack of realization that Blandine is not impressed by such things reveals both arrogance and obtuseness.

While Jack considers that Malik falls for Blandine “the hardest” as he cooks and writes songs for her, he is the one she is least intrigued by. Soon, owing to The Social Conditioning of Gender, his pursuit of her becomes more about competition with the other roommates. Malik always wins the endurance tests, and so does not have to get his hands dirty—this is both the case with the animal sacrifices, which he forces Todd to execute, and later in Blandine’s stabbing. Malik’s cruelty toward Todd manifests in response to his discomfort with Todd’s attraction to him, perhaps signifying homophobia.

Malik’s detached filming of the sacrifice is conveyed through the lens of his former foster sister, Sapphire, who thinks that “Malik always loved attention; she believes that he is capable of hurting someone for it” (371). In the end, when he is arrested, there is a sense that he has been brought to justice.

Todd is the weakest and least conventionally masculine of the three boys in C4. Jack says that “he looks kind of undercooked—like he didn’t spend enough time in the womb” (67). This, in addition to the fact that his experiences with his foster family were likely so traumatic he does not mention them, indicates that he is the prime example of being Orphaned by the Authorities: Foster Kids and Vacca Vale’s Economy.

By nature, Todd, who lives on an eco-friendly diet of raw vegetables and seeks solace in reality TV shows and drawing cartoons, seeks a peaceful life. When the first animal sacrifice is suggested, he points out that the mouse is just a baby, indicating he has a love for living things like Blandine. Although he loathes her because he sees her as competition for Malik’s attention, Blandine is initially most intrigued with Todd.

However, The Social Conditioning of Gender and Todd’s obvious, unrequited passion for Malik mean that he subordinates his instincts to participate in the animal sacrifices. His final, brutal attack on Blandine is a result of his pent-up loathing of the girl and his wish to get rid of her. Despite this act, Todd gains the reader’s sympathy for being a victim of the other boys’ coercion, as Gunty deliberately complicates the categories of predator and prey.

Forty-two-year-old, “handsome in a sleepy sort of way, sometimes brilliant and often depressed” James Yager became a music teacher out of economic necessity after his band failed (109). While his own family was lower-middle class, he married into the Zorn dynasty and lives in a splendid mansion with his wife Meg and their two daughters. Meg has become increasingly remote, making him feel like an outsider in his own home.

Yager’s good looks and cool demeanor make him a popular teacher, and he has seduced two students: Zoe Collins and Blandine Watkins. Both girls were on scholarships and had the qualities of dispossession and promise. James is fully aware of the cliché of an attraction between a male teacher and a female student; in Blandine’s case, he takes performative measures toward preventing an affair, such as inviting her to babysit. However, due to The Social Conditioning of Gender and his insecurities in his marriage, he cannot prevent the affairs. The detail that Blandine enjoyed the sex more than James shows that he is not seeking pleasure but connection and validation of his status. However, James’s cold distancing from Blandine afterward has unforeseen consequences when she quits school. He makes a half-hearted effort to persuade her to change her mind and enlists other staff members to encourage her to continue her education.

At the end of the novel, after his wife has divorced him, he is still remorseful about Blandine and attempts to atone by helping her rescue a goat. His real grief at her stabbing shows a complex portrayal of a conflicted man who loves his student, even as he realizes that this love is inappropriate. However, his refusal to visit Blandine in the hospital indicates that he is still preoccupied with his shame.

Forty-year-old Joan is single and solitary. She has a meek, unprepossessing appearance with hair “the color of February” and short, self-trimmed bangs which rebelliously mark out her autonomy (45). Her pleasures, such as eating a jar of maraschino cherries before bed, are solitary ones. Her predisposition to wanting her own space initially causes her to resist being part of the Intersecting Lives at The Rabbit Hutch, and she does her best to fend off Blandine’s inquiries at the launderette. She accepts her Catholic faith unquestioningly, indicating how she does not interrogate her beliefs and goes with the flow.

However, as a screener of offensive obituary comments at Restinpeace.com, Joan learns that she can find herself mired in conflict despite being meek. This occurs when her boss faults her for not removing Moses Blitz’s diatribe about his mother Elsie, and again when Moses decides to seek revenge on her for removing the comment. Later, when she finds that she is haunted by what happened to Blandine, Joan takes center stage by being the first and only person to visit her in the hospital. She develops from a solitary character who wants to cause the least friction in life to one who takes pragmatic steps to connect with others and make their lives better.

Twenty-four-year-old Hope is initially referred to as “the mother” (11). Gunty referring to her as “the mother” illustrates how Hope feels her whole identity has been taken over since giving birth. Not only is her body transformed into an alien entity that pees when she sneezes, but her mind develops an irrational fear of looking into her son Elijah’s eyes. The theme of Intersecting Lives at The Rabbit Hutch comes into play as Hope’s depression causes her to feel disconnected from her neighbors.

A friend of Hope’s called Kara initially thought that her name was ironic, given her predisposition to despair and anxiety. Hope used to be a waitress, and her modest opinion of herself is expressed in her ability to only enjoy homely comforts like the cheap furniture at the Wooden Lady Motel. However, Hope’s construction-worker husband Anthony is a stabilizing and joyful influence, making Hope realize that she can feel happy for more than an hour at a time. The couple struggled with infertility for a year before finally conceiving while sequestered at The Wooden Lady Motel during a flood.

While Hope and Anthony experience the same events as other characters, their story exists autonomously, and they are among the few not present when Blandine gets stabbed. However, Hope is a big fan of Elsie Blitz and finds the vision of midwestern domesticity in the show a great comfort.

Star of the hit show Meet the Neighbors and writer of her own obituary, Elsie Blitz espouses views that are contrary to her actions. She writes in her obituary that everyone is interconnected and that we all determine each other’s lives. This fits with the theme of Intersecting Lives At the Rabbit Hutch. However, Elsie was a neglectful mother to Moses and underpaid her assistant, Clare Delacruz, who must choose between paying rent and repairing her windshield.

Elsie’s fondness for Zorn Cars united her with the ruling class, and her mansion divorced her from the day-to-day concerns of ordinary people. She aspired toward environmentalism without being socially responsible. Still, Elsie brought hope to millions, including despairing Hope. As she approached death, she achieved candid reflections about how “everything affects everyone” and tried to make things right with her son, although she could not resist criticizing him even then (55).

Elsie’s portly, platinum-blond, 50-year-old son Moses is scarred by his mother’s mistreatment and neglect of him. Although he enjoys being the inheritor of her wealth and lives a lavish lifestyle in California filled with celebrity parties, he is a lonely misfit. His trajectory of being bullied at school has culminated in a lonely adulthood and a relationship with a much younger woman who grew tired of him. Moses copes by painting his skin with phosphorescent glow sticks and writing about the compulsion and its side effects on his mental health blog. He thus seeks to win influence in a niche way as opposed to his mother’s widespread fame.

When Joan is forced to remove his comment on his mother’s obituary, Moses lives up to The Social Conditioning of Gender by coming to Vacca Vale and seeking to meet Joan in some violent confrontation. He blames Joan for a situation in which she has no control, revealing Moses’s deluded nature. Still, as with the other male characters, Moses has a sensitive side that is moved by beauty, both Blandine’s and that of Chastity Valley. Unwittingly, when he goes to the wrong apartment, he has a chance to be the hero as he binds Blandine’s stomach with his trench-coat belt.