Theme: People always want to see the good side of someone, instead of their faults, shortcomings, and evils.
From the beginning, it is very clear that Maggie likes to interfere in the lives of the people she loves. While she is always well-intentioned, her plans never come out the way she intends for them to. Her main goal in this novel was to get her son Jesse and his ex-wife Fiona back together, which proved to be a difficult task. At their “reunion” dinner, the truth comes out, and many of the lies she told in an attempt to get them back together come to light.
Maggie’s meddling is the fault that Ira notices most about her. He even says, “It’s Maggie’s weakness: She believes it’s alright to alter people’s lives. She thinks the people she loves are better than they really are, so she starts changing things around to suit her view of them.” Maggie doesn’t want to believe that the people she surrounds herself with have faults, inner evils, and weaknesses, and she fails to accept the fact that people mess up and aren’t always perfect.
This is a theme that repeats itself in many pieces of American literature. In The Scarlet Letter, for example, the character of Arthur Dimmesdale also fits this theme. He fails to realize until it is too late that the physician Roger Chillingworth is actually his mortal enemy who will be the death of him. While Dimmesdale doesn’t try to change those around him like Maggie, he certainly fails to discern the fact that human beings aren’t perfect. Dimmesdale had trouble seeing that some people have flaws in their character.
This theme is also true of American people today. We always want to consider people as being inherently “good,” not inherently bad. It is hard to accept the fact that most, if not all, people have both good and bad qualities that comprise their character. It is often difficult to understand someone’s flaws, because we always view them as well-intentioned and well-meaning. We always want to think the best of people, but sometimes that has the consequence of losing sight of their real personality.
