Thomas Aaron

ENG M01B
11/21/14
Professor Kirkpatrick

The Unluckiest Identity Crisis

All throughout the book Lucky Us by Amy Bloom the characters go through a long and hardship
filled journey to discover who they are and where they belong. This identity crisis is most prevalent
with the main characters, Eva and Iris, as they grow up mostly on their own. The character's identity
crisis is central to the story of the book as it affects each part of the plot and is relevant all the way to
the end of the book. Since every character goes through at least a minor identity crisis, this theme is
also the most important and shows each character's true nature.
Lucky Us was published in 2014 by Random House Publishing in New York. For a book that
was published very recently, it does a good job of depicting the times back in the 1940s and the attitude
of the people who lived in that time. On the review site www.avclub.com, writer Andrea Battleground
has a lot to say about the themes, writing styles, and characters used by Amy bloom throughout the
book. One of the main things Andrea points out is that although the book was intended to have two
protagonists in the forms of Eva and Iris, she doesn't feel that Iris is developed enough as a character.
According to Andrea, Iris is never really shown as the book's real villain, but simply as a very selfish
person throughout the book. Despite a few misgivings, the critic does give Amy Bloom credit for
showing the story from just Eva and Iris's point of view when there were so many possible views from
other characters to go through.

On the subject of identity, Eva's transition from a lost little girl to a grown woman spans the
entire book and is arguably the most profound transformation of any character in the rest of the book.
In the beginning Eva's mother leaves her with her father, Edgar, and then goes off on her own until the
end of the book when a much older Eva tracks her down. At this point Eva doesn't really have any
particularly stand out traits or motives, she's just kind of dealing with the fact that her mother is never
coming back. However, this changes when her step sister, Iris, accuses her of stealing, but later admits
that she knows that it wasn't her, it was Edgar their father. When Iris says I know it wasn't really you
but I needed something to take it out on... we start to see the extent of Iris's selfishness when she tells
Eva she's going to hide her money in Eva's things from now on. While all this is going on Eva starts to
form the foundation of what her identity in that she decides that she is going to take care of Iris no
matter what.
Towards the middle of the book we start to see Eva develop more of her character and identity
as she grows older. After her and Iris run away from home and Iris's career starts to take off in show
business, Eva is still acting as her care giver but more in the sense that she supports everything Iris does
and just goes along with it. This is most evident first when Iris realizes she's a lesbian and Eva still
supports her, and then later when they meet Gus and Reenie and she covers for Iris while she tries to
have an affair with Reenie who is married to Gus. I went back into the house and talked to Gus... this
occurs after Eva stumbles upon Iris and Reenie laying together half naked in the backyard which was
part of Iris's attempts to seduce Reenie, which Eva helped support.
The end of the book is when Eva really comes into her own not only in terms of identity but
also in the terms of being a young woman as well. She finally shakes off the care taker monicker and,
in simple terms, just tells Iris that she's not going to take care of her anymore which also prompts Iris to
tell Eva that should she ever forgiver, she should write her a letter telling her to come home. Iris, come
home is the shortest letter written in this book but shows the final part of Eva's growth as she forgives
Iris for what she's done and abandoning her and Danny to stay in England.

Iris also goes through a significant change in personality which affects her character in stark
ways. However, throughout the book it seems that Iris feels and expresses emotions in the extreme
which makes her life seem much more dramatic, this is mostly due to her being an actress. The first
part of her identity that the reader sees is her dramatic personality and her selfishness. Iris manipulates
people in every part of the book because of her own selfish impulses, at the beginning of the book we
see this when she starts hiding her money in Eva's room. She doesn't really give Eva a choice in this
matter she just kind of does it, and while this is minor it is still a slight manipulation to get what she
wants.
In the middle of book Iris's selfishness really comes into play when her brief relationship with
Rose. After her lesbian relationship is discovered and she gets black listed, she makes Eva move away
with her because she's turned Eva into her care taker which means that she ensures that wherever she
goes, Eva will go as well. This is emphasized when her hair dresser on set, Francisco, also goes with
them when they leave Hollywood. Iris has an ability to make people do what she wants which is
culminated by her affair with Reenie, after a period of Iris continually seducing Reenie they finally
have sex and their affair is complete. After this Iris gets the FBI to deport Gus to Germany on suspicion
of him being a spy so that she can be the focus of Reenie's love. This sets up much of what happens in
the rest of the story, but is one of the worst of Iris's offenses when it comes to manipulation in the story.
Towards the end of the book Iris is still shown to be selfish but then eventually grows out of it
in the last pages. She maintains her selfishness when she decides to stay in England after her surgery,
leaving Eva alone to take care of Danny and cope with everything that happened to Reenie and Iris on
their own. However, in the last letter she sends to Eva at the end of the book kind of shows that she
feels sorry for what she's done to her half sister especially with this line ... arriving at the airport,
already crying. In the end, Iris goes through a huge character shift from the rest of the book and finally
finds herself at the end when she is reunited with Eva. Once the two of the are back together, the one
thing that made Iris incomplete is returned to her.

The other character who goes through an arguably profound identity crisis is Gus. However,
Gus's crisis is both metaphorical and literal as he goes through a literal identity crisis while in Germany.
Gus isn't introduced to the story until the middle parts and when readers first meet him he is a very
likable person. He seems like a good husband and generally a nice guy to be around, however as Iris
points out he doesn't seem like he is truly in love with Reenie. This seems true based on the evidence
given to readers and is one of his only character flaws besides being kind of a drunkard. His last scenes
in the middle of the story are mostly him getting dragged off to Germany by the American government
and him telling Eva about his sudden disappearance.
Gus appears again in Germany when he takes on another man's identity and goes to stay with
his new family. While there he lives a pretty poor life as the country is in the middle of a massive war,
this is an important time for Gus because it signals his literal identity crisis. He knows who he is, but
now that he has a ties to this new family he doesn't really know who he's supposed to be anymore. This
changes when the town he is living in comes under bombing attacks which eventually kill his new
German family. It is after this and the war itself that he decides to return to the USA and end his literal
identity crisis as he chooses to remain Gus. In the end he gets together with Eva and they begin a
relationship with each other, further ending his metaphoric identity crisis as he finally fills the hole that
Reenie left and begins fresh with this new family in Eva and Danny.
Throughout the book, the characters of the book Lucky Us go through wild character shifts and
identity crisis in the hopes finding not only their place in life but who they really are. Eva goes through
the most profound transformation and is the main symbol of a young girl growing up and discovering
herself as she goes along. Iris stays pretty selfish through most of the book until the very end, however
she too goes through a lot of self discovery and searching as she not only finds herself but also
discovers her sexuality. Gus goes through a metaphorical and literal identity crisis as his life is kind of
tossed upside down numerous times and he must hold on to who his is despite all of the terrible things
happening to him.

Works Cited

Bloom, Amy. Lucky Us. New York: Random House, 2014. Print.

Battleground, Andrea. Www.avclub.com. A.V. Club Reviews, 21 June, 2014. Web.

20 November, 2014