Shelter Character Analysis

In this thriller novel, Shelter by Harlan Coben, the reader is able to stand alongside the main character, Mickey Bolitar, and his quest on solving the mysterious disappearing of his new girlfriend, Ashley. This essay will feature the setting, major conflict, as well as my own personal opinion of this book. The book first introduces itself by telling us of Mickey Bolitar’s situation when he first meets the Bat Lady, allowing us to know that this was in the past. As his father has died, his mother in rehab, and his girlfriend currently missing, Mickey isn’t exactly one of the most optimistic kids in Newark, New Jersey. As well as including a cryptic message about his father from the crazy, child snatching neighbor in town, the Bat Lady, one …show more content…
Although there are multiple conflicts included in this novel, the one that will be focused on in this paragraph is the conflict between Mickey and himself on the subject of his father’s death. As the story opens, it’s one of the first things that we learn about Mickey. It is touched upon that his father played a big role throughout his life up until his death. As it is talked about in one of the later chapter’s, his father didn’t believe in attaching a loved one to a “thing”, however, to Mickey, he finds comfort in his late father’s laptop, in which he sometimes uses to look at his father’s emails. In the story, it centers on one specific email, his father’s resignation email to his job at the Abeona Shelter, which later on shows more importance to the story. In the email, his father, Brad, states how he wants to settle down in order to have a stable life and future for his son, Mickey, leading him to believe that it is his own fault for his father’s death. Throughout the story it is displayed through his own thoughts that we are able to read, that he blames …show more content…
First appearing in the Bat Lady’s house, it later shows its importance as it frequently presents itself in different places including: Mickey’s father’s grave and Ema’s tattoo. The symbol is revealed to be the Swordgrass Brown Tisiphone Abeona, by Ian, a tattoo artist. It is based off of the Ancient Greek gods including Abeona, a shielding goddess, and continues on to explain the story of Tisiphone, a Greek god who punished large crimes. It is used as a reminder of who is involved the Abeona Shelter, the same place Mickey’s father worked at, a foundation that rescues children from dangerous situations such as child trafficking. A theme mentioned in this story is that you shouldn’t judge anyone by their outer appearance. Shown through the character development in this story, we are able to see how Mickey grows to trust Ema more and is able to tell her everything. Another example is the Bat Lady, and how she was at first seen as a crazy child snatcher, to her true self becoming revealed to be Lizzy Sobek, a Holocaust survivor, who has saved hundreds of