#kitsey

I don’t think I have! I’m not sure what avenue to take in exploring them (if you have any in mind) but I think they’re both really interesting women. pippa has such a rich background and narrative arc-- that theo just doesn’t acknowledge. i mean? she’s being raised by her gay uncle and his husband, suddenly being taken by the one that “isn’t related to her”, going to school in Europe (with nuns right??), losing her one passion to her injury which leaves her without a way to cope, then being fucking romanticized by this kid that stayed at her house a lot after her very traumatic accident... there’s so much to pippa. i think her and boris would be such good friends too. also popchyk would LOVE her.

imagine kitsey stringing along petty boys who think they have a chance with her and she’s just loving her gfs and buying shit for them even when they don’t ask

like pippa would probably be too shy but she’d see some sort of necklace and kitsey sees her looking at it and buys it for her

or kotku dragging her manicured nails along lingerie in a store and kitsey buying it for her or buying revealing clothes or stuff because she think it’s sexy

Idk who needs to hear this, but both Pippa AND Kitsey deserved better, deserved to be shown in a different light.

Pippa wasn’t just Theo’s way to emotionally repress himself through obsessing over her, she was also a survivor of a terrorist attack and had to give up all of her dreams as a result AND lost her only living relative that she loved.

And Kitsey. Oh gosh, Kitsey. She had to lose both her brother and her father and then had to take care of her mother. She felt like she had to fill a hole that her brother and father left behind. She tried to cater to her mother’s wishes that she marry a man that she didn’t love just to make her family happy(a tale as old as time).

Their stories are the ones that only appear under the literary iceberg. The iceberg, regarded as Ernst Hemingway’s(a know misogynist) creation, has always seemed to be fit to a certain group of people. Guessed yet? Yep, uptight white boys. The iceberg effect in The Goldfinch is mostly associated with Theo’s internalized homophobia and sexism, but it also appears elsewhere in the novel. I just really want people to see that and stop hating on Pippa and Kitsey, ESPECIALLY Kitsey.

I’m not saying that the sexism and misogyny should be erased from the novel. No, of course not. It makes the book feel real and authentically human. What I’m saying is that y’all need to stop hating on these characters because you’re so hyper focused on Theo and how Theo feels.