Nina Frost is the main character in the novel Perfect Match
by Jodi Picoult. Nina is the assistant district attorney in Maine and
prosecutes child molesters day after day. When her five-year-old son,
Nathaniel, shows signs of sexual abuse, Nina's home and work clash when her
worst fears are confirmed. Nathaniel goes mute after he is raped and Nina
struggles to cope and keep calm while trying to pinpoint a suspect. Nina
makes decisions that show she will go to any extent for her little boy.
Character’s actions always have consequences, whether positive, negative, or
both, which shape the story and let both characters and readers learn.
Consequences that stem from desperate
actions are mostly, if not always negative in Picoult’s novel. And often, these
actions are taken out of love. The perfect example is when Nina took matters
into her own hands, unlawfully, and shot Father Szyszynski, the rape suspect at
the time. This also shows an example of how far Nina will go for a person that
she loves. Nina is obviously a bright person, being the assistant district
attorney, but she was blinded by her love and duty to protect her son when she
committed homicide. Nina honestly believed that killing the suspect was the
only way to protect her son. She thought that the consequences would be
positive, but in fact they were just the opposite. Nina’s goal was to protect
her son from further sexual abuse and keep him away from the intimidating courtroom
by getting rid of who she thought was the perpetrator. Instead, Nathaniel is
deprived of his mother while she stays in jail and he slips back into muteness.
When the reader finds out, along with Nina, that Father Szyszynski was not in
fact the abuser, we realize that her actions and their consequences took us
many steps in the wrong direction. Nina attends the priest’s funeral in a
disguise and Picoult writes, “…a woman in black is bent over at the waist,
sobbing so hard she cannot catch her breath…Father Szyszynski was someone’s
son, too…I cannot take away the truth that another mother has lost her son
because of me” (164). Nina began to realize the painful consequences of her
actions. She then must fight against a jail sentence while the actual rapist was
still on the run. Nina shows that she will go far, too far, for somebody she
loves. Unfortunately, her desperate actions had negative effects.
In the long run, Nathaniel’s sexual
abuse had both positive and negative effects. Or on the flip side, the fact
that Nina was both his mother and the assistant district attorney may have had
good and bad consequences. Of course the actual abuse was horrifying and
sickening, but the effects on Nina could either make her feel helpless or
actually help her. On one hand, it would render Nina helpless because she can’t
try her own son’s case and represent him in court. Knowing that Nathaniel’s
fate is in someone else’s hands, hands that are probably not as experienced as
hers, might drive her crazy. But the experience may help Nina do her job even
better because she will be more empathetic to her clients. She thinks, “…now I’m
the parent, and it is my child, and that changes everything” (60). Remembering
her fear and apprehension when it was her child in that situation would drive
her when trying other people’s cases. This shows how the effects the sexual
abuse had on Nina could be both positive and negative.
Teaching Nathaniel sign language
after he went mute had both positive and negative effects too. Nina did it out
of her love for Nathaniel, but she secretly hoped that he would be able to
communicate some information to locate the criminal. And he was, however
misinterpreted it was. He signed “father”, and Nina thought he was referring to
his dad, Caleb, when in fact he signed it as in “priest”. After hearing this
information, Nina told Caleb, “Don’t come home tonight” (69). She walked away
after that, pretending “as if my heart had not gone to pieces inside of me”
(69). This shows how much she loves both Caleb and Nathaniel, but she is
pushing her husband away to protect her son. When Nina realizes that Nathaniel
meant to expose “Father” as in a priest, it results in the death of an innocent
man. That is the negative consequence of Nathaniel learning sign language, but
the positive side is that they did figure out who the criminal was with the
same evidence later. The one little thing that Nina did for Nathaniel out of
love created much bigger waves than originally thought.
These are all examples of how
actions, however mundane or important, always have consequences. The effects
can be positive, negative, or a mixture of the two. Nina shot Father Szyszynski
and taught Nathaniel sign language out of her love for him, both of which had
negative effects but the latter also had positive ones. Nina dealing with her
son being molested may have changed her for the better or for the worse, but
either way she has learned a valuable lesson. This repetitive theme of action
with consequence can help readers understand that they can make an impact on
the world with just one endeavor. The lesson may also warn readers that they
must think of the consequences if they do something extreme for someone they
love.
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