47 pages • 1 hour read
Greetings From Witness Protection!
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Themes
False Families and the Lack of Authenticity
From the beginning of the novel, Charlotte is obsessed with finding a family of her own. She can hardly be faulted since her biological family has proven so unstable. Her mother abandoned her, her father was in prison, and her grandmother died, so Charlotte has no support group to turn to. In addition, she has been placed with five foster families, none of whom wanted to keep her. Charlotte leaps at the chance to join WITSEC because it represents a clean start, but she fails to realize that she’s being placed in yet another situation that amounts to a facade. She becomes a fake component of a fake family but does so because she has been assured that they won’t be allowed to turn her back over to the system.
Charlotte isn’t the only character whose family experience is less than authentic. Harriet echoes Charlotte’s troubled biological family: Born into a criminal dynasty, she grows up with the expectation that she’ll participate in the family business. As a lawyer, she draws up contracts to further the Cercatore protection racket. Because Harriet possesses a conscience, she can no longer stomach being part of the family’s criminal empire and testifies against them. Fortunately, her husband supports her decision even though their son is unhappy about the consequences. Harriet’s family is cast adrift in the same way that Charlotte has been. All of them are forced to adopt the guise of a happy middle-class family, but this is a fabrication. Ironically, their false family is meant to protect them from blood relatives who are out for their blood.
By setting up this situation, the novel examines the nature of family itself and whether biological families are necessarily superior to any other kind. This clearly isn’t true for Charlotte or Harriet, both of whom were raised by criminals. At the novel’s end, Charlotte has the option to reunite with her ne’er-do-well father but chooses to remain with the Trevors. While Jackson has the hardest time with the false family that’s foisted on him, he comes to recognize that his blood relatives aren’t his friends. Instead, a girl who is a stranger to him soon becomes as close as a biological sister. In the end, he doesn’t seem to mind that she can’t wear gloves and has a tendency to steal when she’s stressed. His so-called false family seems superior to the biological relatives he left behind.
The Effects of Living With a Fake Identity
Because all the novel’s central characters have assumed fake names, it seems natural that they all experience some form of an identity crisis. Charlotte is the most obvious example of this affliction because she alternates between seeing herself as Nicki, the master thief, and Charlotte, the average daughter of an average family. While she’s the most prominent example, however, she’s hardly unique. All the members of the Trevor clan struggle with mastering their new personas. Harriet dyes her dark hair blonde and agonizes about which social engagements to decline or to accept. She doesn’t want to be perceived as unneighborly, but too much social activity might draw unwanted attention on social media. Jonathan has the same problem because Janice has mandated that the family appear absolutely average. He feels responsible for making sure that the children do well enough in school, but only to a point. They must maintain an 82% average in their studies—neither too smart nor too slow. They must also participate in sports but mustn’t excel. This is why Charlotte joins the school’s losing basketball team. Even the issue of Christmas decorations is blown out of proportion in everyone’s attempt to project an average image.
A similar affliction affects all the students at Loblolly Middle School. They’re all trying to fit in, and some students can be cruel in their attempts to pigeonhole each other. Deidre is particularly ruthless in her desire to belittle Brit. Therefore, Brit tries to make herself invisible to avoid harassment. Conversely, Deidre will do anything to draw attention to herself, including authoring a blog to celebrate every trivial detail of her life. Holly tries so hard to be perceived as a student leader that she maintains an exhausting pace just to participate in every single group activity that the school offers.
Ultimately, the effort to conform becomes debilitating. Jackson shows the strain first. He can’t stand the low profile that’s been forced on him and vents about it on his Facebook page. He wants his former identity back and doesn’t care who knows it. Sadly, this attempt at individuality carries a steep price tag when his posts lead Arturo one step closer to finding the Trevors. Similarly, Jonathan allows Charlotte to blow off steam during a basketball game. Her prowess at stealing the ball is so noticeable that it earns her a picture on the school’s website. This photo eventually has even more serious repercussions. Showing the world who you really are can be an irresistible urge, even when the consequences are dire. Charlotte notes, “It’s another thing entirely when Charlotte Trevor is the one front and center, all because I allowed a little bit of Nicki Demere to shine through” (309).
The True Meaning of Home
Charlotte’s quest to find a home via the foster care system is driven by the need to form an enduring emotional connection with someone. She makes friends at the Foster Center, but these individuals are quickly swept out of her life. Similarly, she tries to form attachments in the homes where she’s fostered but finds herself thrown back into the system. She has little reason to expect that WITSEC will be any different. Unlike the foster system, the US marshals don’t even pretend that Charlotte will forge a connection with her charges. They only expect her to play the role of the family’s daughter. The Trevors are so traumatized by the need to stay one step ahead of a mafia hitman that they don’t give much thought to connecting with Charlotte on a personal level.
However, the entire group develops unforeseen emotional attachments as the story progresses. Once Charlotte meets Harriet, she feels an odd reaction: “Now, for the first time since my grammy died, I’ve got someone I don’t want to disappoint” (83). In addition, Charlotte is surprised at the guilt she feels after stealing Harriet’s fake engagement ring. Harriet experiences an epiphany after she discovers the theft. She realizes that she didn’t consider Charlotte’s troubled past and the problems that her foster daughter must have faced. The two establish a rapport after talking the matter through. Charlotte finally earns Jackson’s trust after she doesn’t tattle on him when he throws food at her. Instead, she helps him clean up the kitchen. Later, he helps Charlotte by advising her to confide in Brit when the strain of a fake identity gets to be too much for her. Jonathan likewise finds a way to bond with Charlotte when the two read to one another as a late evening ritual. She later saves him from being shot by Arturo when she reaches her hand out to deflect the bullet from reaching its target. As the story progresses, the newly formed Trevor family starts to function like a real family. They face the threat of Arturo’s vengeance together and defeat him together.
Although Project Family is intended to protect families, it seems destines to destroy the Trevors by the novel’s end, when Charlotte is once again to be sent away. For once in her life, she finds a group of people who fight to keep her. Jonathan squares off against Janice and insists on keeping Charlotte. He says, “Leave this room, Deputy Marshal, and don’t come back until you’ve found a way to make this work. I don’t care who you call, what you say, how many signatures you have to forge” (356). Ultimately, the novel suggests that a real home has nothing to do with biological accident and everything to do with love.
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