The Title
” ‘Breathing lessons—-really,’ she said, dropping to the floor with a thud. ‘Don’t they reckon I must know how to breathe by now?’ “
Throughout the first three-fourths of the novel, I always wondered what the significance of the title was. After all, they were on a road trip for the entirety of the book, which didn’t leave much room for lessons in breathing. But as the plot continued, the style of writing changed, becoming increasingly written in flashbacks to previous, happier days.
The scene that gives the novel its name occurred shortly before Fiona gave birth to Leroy. Fiona, at the time, was still living in Maggie and Ira’s house with Jesse, and Maggie greatly enjoyed signing her up for all kinds of pregnancy classes. This specific class had to do with breathing. Fiona figured that after twenty years of being alive she knew how to breathe pretty well already without the help of a class.
The title and the story behind it connect to one of the main points of the novel–”breathing” is important. First of all, Maggie needs to give a bit more breathing room to those around her, and stop trying to change them. She also needs to learn how to breathe herself–to take a step back and analyze what is going on around her before she leaps into action and takes the reins. This is an important principle to learn in a “think before you speak” kind of way.
Leroy
Leroy is Fiona and Jesse’s daughter–their only current connection, since they choose to have nothing to do with each other. Since he rarely sees her, he doesn’t know what kind of person she is or anything about her, really. At her fifth birthday, he brings her a huge stuffed teddybear, dolls, and all kinds of other toys that girls in that age range usually play with. The only problem is, Leroy is a huge tomboy and prefers running around in the mud to playing with dolls.
“So here he comes with this drink-and-wet doll that cries ‘Mama,’ and when he catches sight of Leroy in her dungarees he stops short; you can see he’s not pleased. He says, ‘Who is that?’ He says, ‘But she’s so—’ I had had to run and fetch her from the neighbors and quick smooth down her hair on the way through the alley. In the alley, I told her ‘ Tuck in your shirt honey. Here, let me lend you my barrette,’ and Leroy stood still for it, which she wouldn’t do ordinarily, believe me.”
“Leroy” could easily be a boy’s name, and this is represented in her tomboyish personality and character.
