Prof. Ogden talked a lot about the theme of doubt in Hey Nostradamus!, but I found that there is also a common thread of accusations in each character’s story. Cheryl’s Youthalive! friends accuse her of “going all the way” with Jason outside of wedlock which causes the only real source of stress in Cheryl’s short life. In Jason’s section, the police, general public and even Cheryl’s parents accuse him of orchestrating the whole massacre, which is why out of the four stages of the afterlife that each character is supposed to be in, Jason is in hell. Throughout the book Reg is accused of being a cold and heartless monster, and also of abandoning his son when he needed him the most because of his devout religious convictions.
Accusations about Heather were a bit harder to figure out, until Heather started talking about Cheryl and how she manages to pop up in their lives every so often. She stated that the five “most unattractive traits in people are cheapness, clinginess, neediness, unwillingness to change and jealousy” (204).
Heather encompasses all five of the traits she thinks are so horrible. The only time she was generous towards another person was when she was desperate for information from the psychic; this could mean that she is cheap. Heather is very clingy and needy; throughout her whole story there is a tone of desperation and loneliness that is highlighted by her relationship with the psychic. Even though Heather knew that the psychic was messing with her, she still called her dozens of times a day. She was so desperate for some contact with Jason that she basically lost her mind. Unwillingness to change on Heather’s part was obvious because she left all of Jason’s stuff lying around the apartment, even though he had been missing for months, “there’s a man’s wallet with credit cards collecting dust on the counter…I’ve been trying to keep Jason’s aura alive…”(175).
Heather is obviously jealous of Cheryl, she even admits to it; even after she says that she think jealousy is the worst of the five most unattractive traits. She is jealous of Cheryl because Jason still loves her and it would be impossible to change that, which is also more evidence of Heather being clingy. Heather’s self-loathing nature is why she is in limbo; she is desperate to the point of insanity for information about Jason’s whereabouts and is very self-loathing. I think that the reason Heather is not in hell is because she befriended Reg when no one else would. She saw the good in him when everyone else thought he was a monster.
The characters in the book also seem very judgmental. Reg judges everyone because in his mind they are imperfect in the eyes of God, Heather judges Cheryl’s parents, “And don’t even get me started on Cheryl’s plastic, mean-spirited parents. Hypocrites. […] I’ve never heard them discuss an idea at the table, let alone give much thought to where Jason might be.” (202) and even Jason’s family, “his family was one notch less than totally useless.” (201). This book is supposedly against all things cynical, but these characters seem pretty cynical to me. Whatever happened to “only god can judge me?”
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That's an awesome observation that you made about Heather actually being all those things that she found unattractive.
For some reason, I believed that Heather was one of the least hypocritical characters. However, you convinced me that she that she was, after all.
You had pointed out that Heather had an unwillingness to change. After some thought, I realized that her unwillingness to change was the reason why she was so cheap, clingy, needy and jealous. Due to her inability to let go of Jason past, she became needy and jealous. Also, because of her inability to let go of her loss of Jason, she became cheap and clingy to the psychic (as you also pointed out).
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