Character Lens

Sometimes a character stays with us long after we close a book. Character Lens looks at literary figures as mirrors into society — and at the ways stories reflect race, class, identity, power and lived experience.

FEATURED ANALYSIS

The Moat She Built

Mrs. McHenry in Kin by Tayari Jones

This character study examines a woman whose pursuit of status and security has become inseparable from a desire to distance herself from the community she came from. It asks what happens when ambition becomes exclusion, and when apparent success depends on leaving others behind.

Further analysis and reader discussions can be found on our literary channels.

We invite readers to share their own interpretations, because the best stories continue in conversation.