The Post-Apocalyptic World of Tom Perrotta in The Leftovers

Written By: Missy Ortiz

I'm sure everyone is missing The Leftovers during this off-season, but for me, there is no off-season. Even while in school, I find ways to incorporate our favorite show into my classes. This semester, I was assigned a literary analysis paper that was for a major grade, and I was allowed to choose my own topic. Without question, I chose Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers book. Now, don't get me wrong, this assignment was tough, even though I love the book. Either way, I gave it my all and submitted it. This weekend, I received feedback on it and my final grade...I got an A! Bestowing excitement and joy, I would love to share it with my fellow Lefties. A little something to read to help us get by until Season 3 starts production... Enjoy!

The Post-Apocalyptic World of Tom Perrotta in The Leftovers

            On October 14, 2011, millions of people worldwide disappeared without a trace, into thin air. That is, in Tom Perrotta’s evangelistic and cryptic novel, The Leftovers. Tom Perrotta is widely known for writing novels based in colonized settings and revolving characters enduring random, emotional episodes of questioning life. Perrotta has, in effect, been writing disaster fiction for twenty-five years, in plainspoken, often funny short stories about coming of age in the suburbs (Crouch). Even though The Leftovers, is based on a cynical rapture that involves many religious bouts of question, Tom Perrotta bases himself as agnostic. Perrotta’s writing in The Leftovers, ventures from rationing the Garvey family, the chain-smoking cult The Guilty Remnant, and the woman who lost her entire family to the departure, Nora Durst, which all together express his ideas through rebellious, emotional chaos that leads to hopeful, new beginnings.

            Perrotta describes his own approach to his writing style in an interview on NPR stating, “I don’t feel like I’m a satirist…the process of spending time with characters, getting inside their heads, trying to see the world the way they see it, pulls me away from satire” (Perrotta). Therefore, a reader reading Perrotta’s works should understand that he uses cynicism in his words, but he usually is thoroughly genuine. The fact that he remains skeptical of beliefs known to man, he creates a world that is misplaced after a sudden departure happens and focuses on purpose in the small suburban town of Mapleton, New York. The author states in an interview, “I spent a lot of time thinking about contemporary Christianity, and obviously the rapture kept coming up. No matter what horrible thing happens in the world the culture seems to move on” (Perrotta).

On the surface, the plot of The Leftovers gently unravels in the prologue as he introduces a character who experiences the “rapture” first-hand. Laurie Garvey is a mother of two, a married and educated woman, who lives the nine to five basic life. When her best friend’s daughter disappears on October 14^th, she realizes her life is rather questionable and seeks a higher purpose. Perrotta then jumps to introduce his version of Memorial Day, that he calls “Heroes Day”, or Mapleton’s “Three Year Anniversary” (Perrotta 1; 9; 11). The next character introduced is Mayor Kevin Garvey, and Perrotta continues to evolve the story by shifting characters as if dedicating each chapter to each one. Kevin Garvey is utilized as one of the main characters who is devastated from the departure. He resembles sort of a prestigious businessman, who attempts to care for the only family member left in the household, his carefree, teenage daughter Jill. When his wife goes astray to join the town’s local cult-like group, The Guilty Remnant, all hell breaks loose within the Garvey family.  

The Guilty Remnant was created by Perrotta as a way to cope with the drastic event that destroyed many lives, such as the aftermath of September 11^th.  He visited many catastrophic venues where drastic events happened, and he realized he was in the middle of what he wanted to discern. Perrotta told The New York Times Magazine, “I kept bumping up against the Rapture scenario, and I got in that ‘What if?’ mode” (Cowles). As if witnessing a disaster first-hand, he deliberately depicts the chain-smoking, all-white dressed assemblage of former respected community members, happily married housewives, and legit hard working husbands and fathers. He brings The Guilty Remnant to life, so to speak, by not only painting a corner they cannot get out of, but surfacing their flaws, using vague and powerful taglines. “WE ARE LIVING REMINDERS”, “IT WON’T BE LONG NOW”, and “LET US SMOKE” are just a few of the stances that the GR exemplify (Perrotta 202).

What on earth could Tom Perrotta be referring to when he wrote such slogans for a fictitious ensemble of people, like us, that turned sour after a rapture-like event? It almost seems as if the Guilty Remnant are mocking religion. It seems that they have faith in something powerful, but Perrotta doesn’t allow a spiritual essence in this group. His demeanor is valid, especially because he rationed how the world could be like if there was such a catastrophe among us. In another part of his interview with The New York Times, he states, “I immediately thought, you know what, we probably would have forgotten about the Rapture, because three or four years is an eternity in this culture” (Cowles). The idea of a rebellious crew of same-sex “watchers” recruiting more and more individuals on a daily basis, could very well be a possible scenario as to what would happen to our world.  The author illustrates the Guilty Remnant as a defiant group against religion, and this signifies his truth about how religious he is, being agnostic. The Guilty Remnant was easy to create with Perrotta. Since he shares no religious beliefs, he ultimately uses them as a figure of how he thinks the world would react to such an event.

Laurie Garvey, wife of Mayor Kevin Garvey, decides to join this cult because she needed a greater purpose. Her son and daughter become affected when her ill-thought decision comes to play. The timeline balances itself out well while he DeLorean’s his way back to the days before the departure happened. Perrotta uniquely characterizes the somber elements of the town with the emotional draining of the characters. One minute Laurie Garvey is lighting up a cigarette with a lighter her daughter gave her for Christmas that read “Don’t forget me”, and the next minute she makes sure the lighter gets to the bottom of a storm drain (224). Perrotta uses a lot of passive-aggressiveness when Laurie Garvey is involved. He manages to elucidate the inimitable qualities a wife and mother would have and then shatter them all in a blink of an eye, as if smashing a mirror.

The Garvey family suffers from the fact that their queen has departed from their home. Even though she didn’t rapture with the others, she ultimately disappeared when she left to the GR. Jill Garvey, daughter of Kevin and Laurie, is portrayed as a lost and lonely teenage girl who but only carries the companionship of her one friend, Aimee. Aimee is more carnal and vigilant than Jill is, but Perrotta makes sure that their bond adheres to the story. It almost feels as if Aimee could be a twisted form of a guardian angel for Jill, since she basically has no one left to comfort her. So Perrotta creates a carefree world for them to live in. Perrotta illustrates the grievance in the family with teenage rebellion from all-night drug and alcohol infested parties, to skipping school, and smoking pot when a test in class is due. The only problem with Aimee being Jill’s best sidekick is that she dresses the part well, especially when she is around Jill’s father. She prances around the house in braless tank tops and eats his homemade omelets in her underwear (36). The description of reckless teenage behavior is quite spot, on and Perrotta’s imagination perfects the glory of teenage uprising.  His prose connects well in this modern age time where divorce is no longer a headline, same-sex marriages are becoming a natural presentation, and where pot-smoking is legal in almost half of the country. Teenage kids would most definitely be lost and acting on impulse if a rapture-like event happened in our world today.

Kevin Garvey is an individual with many emotional issues. Perhaps, Tom Perrotta placed himself as a target, and visualized how a community would react to an imminent disaster such as the sudden departure. How Kevin Garvey deals with the surrounding torture of losing his family, not to the departure, but because of it, is evidently natural. How would any man feel in a situation like this? Even the King himself, Stephen King, that is, gave his approval to the story and its success. The New York Times revealed Stephen King’s praise for the novel stating, “A troubling disquisition on how ordinary people react to extraordinary and inexplicable events, the power of family to hurt and to heal, and the unobtrusive ease with which faith can slide into fanaticism” (King). The connection between family and loss is implacable in Perrotta’s choice of vision he entices into Kevin Garvey’s character. Kevin struggles with alcoholism and chooses to have casual sex with random women in his community. Tom Perrotta’s theme of a rebellion within a family that could evidently happen in such a drastic event, is highlighted through Kevin Garvey’s character. There is no mercy following the events of the departure. He tries his best to be a good dad, a good citizen and win his wife back all at one time. However, The Guilty Remnant always plays a huge role in governing those actions. They intervene at every chance he gets, and that is how Perrotta plans the demise of the town, but also, this is how he authorizes new hope and a new beginning. One can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

Tom Garvey, Jill’s brother, went away for college to just drop out and follow a God-like medium, for lack of better words, who calls himself Holy Wayne. This man seeks out people who are lost and are in pain because of the departure, promises them happiness after accepting their PayPal account tender, and impregnates young, Asian virgins. Tom decides he has hope whilst pursuing Holy Wayne, being a servant, courier and volunteer for his services. Tom is instructed to guard a special someone that Holy Wayne cared for, Christine. Christine is one of his brides, and she became pregnant with his child. When she delivers the baby, she vanishes and Tom is left with the infant, lost and bewildered. The characters continue to develop as each page turns, but the storyline doesn’t cease to dull the blade. Again, we go back to the suburban lifestyle; beautiful Victorian-like houses, a fire department, donut shops, and justified people shooting rabid dogs in their backyards. Perrotta almost contains the bright chaos in Mapleton in a Mason jar and then focuses on Tom Garvey’s gamble while outside of New York.

Another huge character that the author religiously pitches at readers is Nora Durst. She is the only one who lost her entire family and is declared a legacy. Her husband and children sat at the breakfast table on October 14^th, and they simply vanished right before her eyes. Perrotta uses extreme depressive schemes to follow Nora and uses her as a way of showing hope to the world. In her speech at the Heroes’ Day Parade, she speaks eloquently to the town of Mapleton saying, “I’m not greedy. I’m not asking for that perfect day at the beach. Just give me that horrible Saturday, all four of us sick and miserable, but alive, and together” (27).

She meets Kevin Garvey, they develop a relationship, and her story becomes less dismal where the plot thickens. After she realizes that she doesn’t belong in the world of Mapleton, she decides to write a goodbye letter and deliver it to Kevin’s door.

“Dear Kevin,

By the time, you read this, Nora will no longer exist. Sorry-I guess that sounds more ominous that I meant it to. I just mean that I will be leaving Mapleton, heading somewhere else to start a new life as another person. You won’t see me again….I know you wanted to know me…So let me at least try to give you an answer. I feel like I owe you that much. We were having a family dinner…And then Erin spilled her apple juice….I gathered a handful of towels, winding them off the roll….I think maybe I closed my eyes, let my mind go blank for a second or two. That was when it must have happened. You could have told me what I already think I know, that the crying and the spilled juice aren’t really that important, that all parents get stressed out and angry and wish for a little peace and quiet. It’s not the same as wishing for the people you love to be gone forever” (Excerpts from Nora’s Letter, 318-321).

When she arrives, she finds a newborn baby that seemed to have been abandoned on Kevin’s front porch. Kevin approaches the house, to find her standing on his porch, and Nora expresses the final line of the book, “Look what I found” (355). Nora Durst is a woman that Tom Perrotta calculated to be a devastatingly depressed person who lives in guilt and remorse for the disappearance of her family. He depicts her character like a three-legged puppy limping down the street and chooses her dialogue fiercely. Perrotta uses Nora Durst as a symbol of hope in his story, by utilizing a “goodbye letter” that she writes to Kevin Garvey. In this letter, he verifies the tragic incident that happened to her family, and her attitude towards it. The author creates a hopeful ending for the story when he places the child on the front porch for Nora. With the book ending at that moment, it leaves readers to think what could happen next. She very well could present it to Kevin, and then suggest that they adopt the child to make a “new family”. This is the hope that Perrotta suggests, a new beginning.

Perrotta being a family man himself, must know how tough the system works with family. The author claims, “I know that feeling of being left behind. We’re always being left behind, we’re always living in a world where there are these spaces where people we knew and loved used to be.” (Cowles) His connection to this theory is a catalyst in how he came up with the idea of The Leftovers. He romanticized it, twisted it, nurtured it, and stuck it out until the end. He uniquely introduces the Garvey family, The Guilty Remnant, and Nora Durst in each chapter, connecting them and tying their story together. As if playing in a sandbox, Perrotta mocks religious endeavors and yet, clarifies his religious beliefs in his novel with his creation of The Guilty Remnant.  Overall, The Leftovers, unifies love, loss and connection through justified meaningful words of faith throughout the story. With extraordinary character schemes and the basis being that of an exceptional story from despair to hope, Tom Perrotta’s grace period work proves to have departed off bookstore shelves all around the globe.

                                               Works Cited 

                                               

Cowles, Gregory. “A Writer Deals With Success as Not the End of the World.” New York Times.        

New York Times, 29 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 March 2016.

Crouch, Ian. “Tom Perrotta’s Subtle Apocalypse.” Rev. of The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta. New

Yorker: NewYorker.com, 27 June 2014. Web. 29 March 2016.

King, Stephen. “The Eerie Aftermath of a Mass Exit.” Rev. of The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta.

New York Times Sunday Book Review. 25 Aug. 2011. Web. 30 March 2016.

Perrotta, Tom. Interview. Fresh Air. NPR. WYNC, New York. 25 Aug. 2011. Radio. 25 May 2012. Transcript. Web. 29 March 2016.

Perrotta, Tom. The Leftovers. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin Press, 2011. Print

*Now, keep in mind, I submitted several drafts to the writing center and of course, the final draft to my professor. If you see any discrepencies, feel free to let me know! Tell me what you think. I would love constructive criticism! If you noticed anything different you would like to analyize from the book, all of your comments are welcome below! Until we kick off season three, welcome back Lefties! 

How did you feel about my literary analysis on The Leftovers book? 

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