Divisadero: Analysis of Major Characters
"Divisadero: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the complex relationships and intricate backstories of key figures in the novel "Divisadero." The narrative primarily revolves around Anna, Claire, and Coop, who form a tight-knit yet troubled family unit marked by emotional distance and traumatic experiences. Anna, adventurous and reckless, becomes a literary scholar after running away from her family following a tumultuous love affair with Coop, her foster brother. Coop, a professional gambler shaped by his traumatic childhood, struggles with feelings of isolation and belonging, while Claire, the more sensible sister, grapples with her own identity and physical limitations stemming from childhood illness.
The analysis also delves into supporting characters such as the enigmatic Lucien Segura, a poet whose troubled relationships reflect his complicated past, and Aldo Vea, who serves as a mentor to Claire, guiding her through personal challenges. The interactions among these characters highlight themes of love, loss, and the search for connection amidst chaos. With its rich character development, "Divisadero" invites readers to reflect on the emotional landscapes that define each character's journey, offering insights into their motivations and struggles.
Divisadero: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Michael Ondaatje
First published: 2007
Genre: Novel
Locale: Nicasio, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lake Tahoe, California; Demu, France
Plot: Historical
Time: 1940s and 1980s
Anna, sister to Claire and Coop; literary scholar. In some chapters, Anna is the narrator. She is blond. A bit of an adventurer, Anna can be reckless. After her love affair with her foster “brother” Coop, Anna runs away by hitching a ride with a truck driver. She never contacts her family again. She becomes a historian/literary scholar who spends time in the former home of Lucien Segura, a writer whom Anna is studying. She has a romantic relationship with Raphael.
Claire, adopted daughter and sister to Anna and Coop. She is the careful daughter, adopted at birth, following the death of her mother, Claire becomes a “twin” sister to Anna who, likewise, has lost her mother on the same day. Claire is sensible, except in moments of abandon, while riding horses—her passion. Claire has acquired a limp due to a childhood illness. She is inquisitive and has reddish-brown hair. While she is a main character in the novel, we learn little of her story outside of her relationship with Anna and Coop.
The father, Anna and Claire's father is never named. After his wife dies in childbirth, Anna's biological father adopts Claire and raises Coop (a neighbor's orphaned child). He is emotionally remote and a man of little affection who nearly murders Coop upon finding him and Anna in a lovers' embrace.
Cooper (Coop), foster brother to Anna and Claire; professional gambler. Coop is a taciturn and thoughtful soul. He has an easy grace, and is a man of few words. At the age of four, he witnesses the brutal beating and murder of his entire family, and is raised by a neighbor who has two young daughters. Though he is a foster son and brother, he belongs to no one, becoming more of a reclusive, hired hand than family member. He is deeply loved by Anna and Claire. When he has a love affair with Anna, the father reacts with violence, nearly killing Coop and permanently ripping the family apart, isolating them from one another. After much hard work, Coop becomes a gifted professional gambler, leading a solitary life, drifting through the lives of others, belonging nowhere and to no one, depending on the whims of chance.
Dorn, Coop's best friend. With “the hippie” as a pseudonym, Dorn seems to be a character from the 1960s, wearing sandals and beads. Rumor has it he met his girlfriend, Ruth, at a Grateful Dead concert.
The Dauphin and Mancini, Coop's gambling friends. With Dorn, these friends form a tight-knit trio of gambling friends.
Axel (a.k.a. the Gentile), old-time cardsharp. A gambling legend, rumor has it that the Gentile won his wife in a card game. He is a no-nonsense cardsharp who never stops talking. Living in an Airstream trailer with his wife, Lina, hetrains Coop in the art of the cardsharp.
The Brethren, a mafia-like family of gambling thugs.
Aldo Vea, Claire's employer. Aldo Vea is a freewheeling state attorney whose assistants, including Claire, are like private investigators. Vea is able to draw Claire out of herself, defusing the power of her history on her personality. He becomes an important guide for Claire, and directs her in handling Coop and his dire, dangerous situation.
Bridget, a con and drug addict. In her early to mid-thirties, with blond hair, Bridget is a very tall (about 6'2'') woman who exudes energy. She is a drug addict who betrays Coop to a violent gang of gamblers.
Gil, a thug. Gil is the ringleader of a band of thugs who try to force Coop into using his cardsharp skills for their benefit. When Coop refuses, Gil and his associates nearly beat Coop to death.
Monsieur and Madame Q, housekeeper and groundskeeper at Lucien Segura's home. Monsieur and Madame Q maintain the house—the manoir—at Demu, where Lucien Segura, the poet, lived, and where Anna has come to study Segura's life.
Raphael, Ana's lover in Demu. Raphael, a thickset man, is easygoing and comfortable with himself, with no sense of guile or darkness about him. He is a musician and the son of gypsies.
Aria, Raphael's mother. Aria is a self-sufficient woman of Romani heritage. She, Rafael and Liebord live in a caravan near Lucien's home.
Lucien Segura, writer. A difficult and solitary man, Lucien has more meaningful relationships with his fictional creations than with his wife or children. His appearance is disorderly—an unironed shirt, a scraggily mustache, and a missing tooth. He was a bookish boy, nearly blinded in a freak accident involving a dog charging at him through a plate glass window.
Liebord/Astolphe, Raphael's father. Liebord is an ethereal character, speaking lines like “I went to the war and I never came back,” He doesn't have a permanent name. Liebord is the name Lucien chose for him, though he is sometimes referred to as “the thief.” He later changes his name to Astolphe.
Odile Segura, Lucien Segura's mother. Of Spanish descent, she is an independent woman who, essentially, raises Lucien on her own.
Marie-Neige, Lucien's childhood neighbor and friend. Marie is a very young, shy and naive newlywed when Lucien and Aria first meet her. She has short, black hair because, following her marriage to Roman, they try to pass her off as a boy when the community ridicules them due to their large age difference. Aria teaches her to read, while she and Lucien become very close friends (they are quite close in age) when Lucien begins reading Dumas to her. After Lucien's eyes are injured, she begins reading to him. Marie-Neige becomes quite introspective.
Roman, husband to Marie-Neige; Lucien's childhood neighbor. Roman is a physically powerful, sometimes coarse man, who marries a young woman half his age, thus drawing the ridicule (and sometimes violence) of local townspeople as they wander, trying to find a place to settle, free from the ire of others. He eventually lands in prison after he nearly kills a man in a fit of jealous rage.
Lucette Segura, Lucien's daughter. She has a natural grace and politeness about her, with dreams of becoming a writer like her father. She has an affair with Pierre Le Cras, her sister's fiancé, possibly becoming pregnant by him.
Pierre Le Cras, poet; Therese's fiancé.