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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Mistreatment and Exploitation of the Mentally Ill
The secondary plot of Pieces of Her, which follows Laura, formerly Jane, through the summer of 1986, is set against a historical backdrop of changes to the mental healthcare system in the United States. Martin Queller, an influential economist and businessman, runs a series of private healthcare facilities in California through his company, QuellCorp. His plan is to extend the model he has developed in California, where he receives state contracts to provide care for the mentally ill, across the nation. In the United States, the 1980s are often associated with the privatization of previously state-run or “public” programs and utilities under the administration of President Ronald Reagan. This historical background is important for understanding the novel’s treatment of mental illness. The QuellCorp facilities accept state funding but provide inadequate healthcare to patients to maximize profits. Their poorly maintained facilities are over-crowded and turn down many people who clearly need access to psychiatric care, including Robert David Juneau, who later murders his children and commits suicide after being rejected for care by QuellCorp. Further, QuellCorp engages in illegal activity, receiving payments for patients who are not receiving care or have already died.
The novel, then, suggests that the privatization of mental health care resources in the 1980s created opportunities for corruption, and that men like Martin were able to take advantage of the political climate to make profit at the expense of the mentally ill. However, Martin is not the only character in the novel who is willing to exploit those with mental illness. Nick, for example, vehemently opposes Martin’s policies and beliefs, but he nevertheless recruits several patients from a QuellCorp facility, all of whom suffer from various forms of mental illness, into his personal army. Andrew, for example, suffers from addiction and depression, and Jane notes that the other members of the Changing World are also former psychiatric patients whose conditions make them particularly vulnerable to Nick’s manipulations. Even decades later, Nick’s influence on former followers such as Paula remains so strong that they follow his instructions while he is in prison. Groups with profoundly different political ideals, then, both use the mentally ill as tools to further their own goals in this novel.
The Dangers of Extremism
Martin Queller is an undeniably villainous figure in the novel. His QuellCorp healthcare facilities in California siphon public funding but fail to adequately address the healthcare needs of patients suffering from mental illness. Further, his plan to extend the QuellCorp model across the entire nation would magnify existing social issues. The murder-suicide committed by Robert Juneau exemplifies the negative social effects of insufficient healthcare resources. Further, Martin is personally abusive to those around him, bullying his son Andrew, who suffers from addiction, and sexually assaulting his daughter, Jane. Jane and Andrew have good reason to oppose their father on both personal and ethical grounds.
However, the extreme methods they employ to resist Martin and his political project raise difficult ethical questions. Alongside Nick, who claims to have been mistreated while receiving treatment at a QuellCorp facility, Jane and Andrew turn to tactics that are violent and illegal. As founding members of the Army of the Changing World, they adopt positions and tactics that would be considered “extremist.” Feeling that the legal channels for bringing about political change are slow and inefficient, they instead engage in escalating acts of violence and terrorism. They start by attempting to humiliate Martin Queller at an economics conference in Oslo, but their plans lead to the deaths of both Martin and Laura Juneau. Back in California, they kidnap and accidentally murder Dr. Alexandra Maplecroft before planning out the final stage of their plan, which involves setting off bombs in financial centers in New York City and Chicago.
Ultimately, their plans lead to multiple deaths and fail to bring about any real political change that might help the poor or the mentally ill. Through its depiction of the failures of the Army of the Changing World, the novel critiques the political extremism of the group, and in particular, the group’s willingness to sacrifice human life to bring about their political goals. Though Martin might indeed be a villainous figure in the novel, his opponents become similarly inhumane in their pursuit of vengeance against him.
Male Violence Against Women
Laura’s decades-long struggle to escape her abusive ex-boyfriend Nick connects the two primary sub-plots of Pieces of Her, one focused on Andy in the present day and the other following Laura, then known as Jane, in the 1980s. Violence against women is a primary theme in the novel, which highlights the long-lasting consequences of misogynistic abuse. As an adolescent, Jane Queller is frequently sexually assaulted by her father, Martin Queller, who enjoys prominence and respectability as a successful businessman and economist. His abuse of Jane is also emotional and psychological. At times he neglects her, and at other times he subjects her to impossibly high standards, belittling her piano performances despite her talent and success as a concert pianist. Hoping to get away from Martin, Jane rushes into a relationship with Nick, and her desperation to escape makes her all the more vulnerable to his manipulative and abusive behavior. A person who is abused at an early age, the novel suggests, might easily become trapped in a cycle of abuse, as they may regard abusive behavior as “normal.”
Nick soon proves to be no less violent than Martin. Like Martin, he inflicts emotional and psychological violence on Jane, forcing her to prove her loyalty to him through “tests” that put her in harm’s way. When words fail Nick, he resorts to physical assault, brutally beating Jane in order to induce an abortion twice, once successfully and once unsuccessfully. Further, he actually documents his own abuse of Laura, taking photos of her bruised and injured body and pretending that Martin was responsible. He then shows the photographs to Andrew to ensure his loyalty to their cause. Nick is not only abusive, but even exploits his own abuse to further control others, taking advantage of Andrew’s brotherly instinct to protect his sister. For men like Martin and Nick, women are merely objects to be used and cast away.
That Nick continues to harass and assault Laura decades after the end of their relationship underscores the possessive attitude at the heart of male violence towards women. He thinks of Laura as belonging to him and cannot accept that she has decided to leave him. This sense of possessiveness appears at various points in the novel. At the diner in Belle Isle, for example, Jonah Helsinger shoots and kills Shelly, his ex-girlfriend, after she decides to leave him. He also kills her mother, Betsy, whom he blames for driving a wedge between him and Shelly. This misogynistic violence is a consequence of the belief that women are owned by men. Further, the misogynistic nature of Jonah’s shockingly violent act is covered up by the police. Gordon, a lawyer, warns Andy and Laura that the police will sympathetically characterize Jonah as a troubled young man who only turned to violence as a symptom of grief for his own murdered father.
However, the novel also examines women’s complicity in misogyny. Paula, for example, is a vocal feminist who teaches college courses on topics such as patriarchy and sexual violence. And yet, she is willing to assist in the abuse of Jane to get closer to her own goals and to impress Nick. In 1986, Nick leaves Paula behind in the farmhouse outside Chicago in order to keep Jane a prisoner. Not only is Paula aware of his physical abuse of Jane, but she also taunts her for it. Here, romantic competition keeps these two young women, both of whom are exploited by Nick in various ways, from working together or sympathizing with one another. Decades later, Paula sends Hoodie to torture Laura on Nick’s behalf after her location is exposed by the video of her at the diner in Belle Isle. Despite her claims to be a feminist, she offers no solidarity or aid to Laura, exposing the wide gulf between her feminist beliefs and her misogynistic actions.
