Fly Away

Like Tully, Marah Ryan undergoes significant growth and transformation throughout the course of the novel. Readers are given glimpses of Marah’s character prior to Kate’s death: she is a typical suburban teenager who enjoys the company of her friends and extracurricular activities. She works hard in school, enrolling in challenging coursework so that she may later excel in college. Desiring acceptance from her peers as is the norm of teenagers, Marah enjoys keeping up with fashion trends, which often causes her to butt heads with Kate, who disapproves. Marah’s happy-go-lucky teendom falls apart, however, with Kate’s death. Though she is at an age where she seeks to pull away from her parents to define herself as a unique person, she misses and longs for the care and support her mother provided. Though she has school friends, Marah notes that none of them fulfill the role of “best friend” in the way that Kate has.

The novel’s multiple points of view allow readers to view varying aspects of Marah’s personality. To Tully and Johnny, she is cold and stubborn in the time immediately following Kate’s death, unwilling to allow anyone to comfort her. Marah immediately puts up a front that insists she does not need help, attempting to deny her sadness. This practice worsens as she is forced to move away from her friends. As her internal pain grows, Marah turns to self-harm, finding release from her emotions in the physical pain. This self-harm parallels the numbing she later partakes in when she begins using alcohol to forget her sadness, under the suggestion of Paxton. Marah, somewhat naïve and impressionable due to her fragile emotional state, falls under a kind of spell of Paxton’s. She becomes convinced that the solution to forgetting her sadness is to become a new person—to trade the suburban, college-bound teenager for a defiant, unfeeling young woman who rebels against social norms. Indeed, the changes that take place in Marah’s physical appearance indicate her attempts to distance herself from her past and former self.

Ultimately, though, Marah is a kind person at heart, having been raised and nurtured by loving parents. Her strength of character wins out over the false persona she has tried on for the four years since her mother’s death. She feels guilty over the way she has hurt Tully, Johnny, and other family members, and takes steps to resolve the wrongs she has committed. Achieving this requires that Marah confront the grief over her mother’s death at last. As she can acknowledge her sadness rather than hide from it, she paradoxically becomes less sad. Her character has been strengthened through these trials, and the novel indicates that she, like Tully, faces a promising future.

Father of Marah and husband of Kate, Johnny is also a long-time friend of Tully. Like other characters, early in the novel he is impacted by grief over Kate’s death. He recalls his inability to admit that her death is imminent in the weeks preceding it, though Kate herself desires to speak of it. He feels guilt in the days and weeks immediately following that he was unable to tell Kate the things he wished he was strong enough to speak of at the time—still, the love and bond they shared was a strong one and he goes on to deal with his grief effectively.

Johnny is a loving father who wants the best for his children and wants to support and comfort them through their own grief. His connection to his sons allows this to happen naturally, but Marah resists Johnny’s efforts to connect with her. The dissonance between them serves as one of the novel’s central conflicts. Though he cares deeply for Marah’s wellbeing, he responds in a manner that is sometimes overprotective and thus drives Marah further away. As he clings to the life he and Kate envisioned for Marah, Marah resists. Johnny stands in judgement of Marah’s alteration of her physical appearance and of her time spent with Paxton. His attempts to force her to comply, however, are ineffective. Johnny directs his anger and frustration for Marah’s behavior at Tully, blaming her for Marah’s rebellion and weakening his friendship with Tully. It is not until Tully nearly dies that Johnny is able to soften and take responsibility for damaging his relationship with Marah and with Tully. This admission of his mistakes marks a growth in his character.

Tully’s mother enters the novel toward its end. Tully, however, frequently alludes to Dorothy’s absence from her life, and Dorothy’s neglect has shaped Tully greatly. Presented from first person point of view, however, Dorothy is a much more sympathetic character. The abuse she herself suffered as a child ultimately leads her to the dependency on drugs and alcohol, which makes her unable to care for Tully. Importantly, Dorothy chooses to receive treatment for her addictions and commits herself to remaining sober. Her efforts to change her life are commendable: Her sobriety leads to a passion for organic gardening, which helps Dorothy connect with her community and is also beneficial to her healing. Further, Dorothy accepts responsibility for the mistakes she has made throughout her life and the ways in which she has hurt Tully. Her desire to care for Tully when Tully is in need speaks to how much Dorothy does indeed love her daughter. Importantly, she recognizes that she has not only withheld love from Tully but knowledge that Tully has needed to reconcile her own (Tully’s) past. Dorothy’s decision to finally open up to Tully—by sharing her own life history and by finally revealing the identity of Tully’s father to Tully—demonstrate a growth of character. The novel’s ending is an optimistic one, suggesting that Tully and Dorothy’s relationship has been fully restored and will continue to grow stronger as the future unfolds.