Characterisation of Cady
In We Were Liars, our protagonist Cadence Sinclair is also our first person narrator. She is almost eighteen when telling the story, but the book features her years of life from 15 to 17. Her hair used to be blond, and now it's black.
Before her accident:
Cadence was a pretty and strong girl. Her first character change happens right at the start of the story, when her father leaves the Sinclair family. Before that, she feels like the future Queen of the island, because she is the oldest grandchild. When her father leaves, she realises that her "perfect world" fantasy is not exactly right. She starts to understand the world and her priviledge in it. "Understanding everything" makes her sad, so she chooses to reject all conversation about that.
After her accident:
With her accident, her world view is shattered once again. Last time, she told herself: "Things are going wrong, but I can still be fine". Afterwards, she becomes depressive and developes migraines, which make her life worse again. Basically, her view of the future slowly breaks, as she gets marked for life and handicapped by a chronic disease. She becomes a very different character than the Cady from the beginning. She is very neutral towards things happening, because she simply doesn't care anymore. Her mindset is now: "The world is terrible, and I'll just play along"
Dear Raphael,
AntwortenLöschenI really like how you've tried to psychoanalyse Cady a bit here. She's very difficult to grasp and the fact that we can't fully rely on what she tells us makes it even harder.
It might have helped if you had quoted some of these inner monologues of Cady to highlight her character and her thoughts even more.