Many of the minor characters in A Complicated Kindness seem to be observed with

detachment, as if they are objects seen through a window. Taking the example of at least
two minor characters, discuss how they do (or do not) affect the narrator.

Introduction

Topic Sentence
In Miriam Toews’s novel A Complicated Kindness, the author relates the disintegration of her
family in a small Mennonite town in the Canadian prairies, a story that is also populated by a
range of fleeting personages.

Thesis
As Nomi navigates East Village, either around her house, along the main streets, or on the
town’s outskirts, her encounters with these minor characters have a range of effects on the
protagonist, sometimes as bewildering objects of curiosity, and at others, as people whose
own needs engage Nomi’s own capacity to show kindness.

Outline
In particular, the character of Bert, who drives the town as an oblivious case of automotive
pride, and the neighbouring girl who occasionally asks Nomi to play, illustrate that the narrator
is both entertained by the oddity of these minor characters, and occasionally is moved by them
to showcase her own accommodating spirit.

Body Paragraph 1

Part of the narrator’s interest in the people of her town is in how they answer the
question of their freedom, that is, how they use their freedom when there is no obvious
urgency or direction of how to act. The fashion and style of the car that Bert displays while
driving around town, for instance, offers Nomi a chance to judge the aesthetics of his choices,
which are an expression of taste. Bert’s decision to “sew “Led Zeppel” into his jacket
disappoints Nomi because the lettering is sloppy, or a half-hearted realization of his intention,
which is why she “wished so badly that he had taken the time to measure the letters out and
sketch them on with pencil first” (78). This observation, however, leads to the more general
realization that Bert shows how people can improve themselves with a little more
consideration, or in Nomi’s words, how “there really were so many simple ways we could
make ourselves look less like idiots” (79). Here, then, a minor character inspires a general
appreciation for human agency. Of course, Nomi’s sense of humour, or her recognition of the
ridiculous nature of human choice, also ensures that minor characters such as Bert are a source
of entertainment. When, for instance, Nomi “counted the number of times Bert drove past
me,” there is nothing meaningful about this counting, except the fact that it shows how life in
East Village is terribly repetitive. On that day, Bert repeats the cycle of touring Nomi “Twenty-
three times,” a count that is so high that he seems to have tied his freedom into a knot, or a
mindless circuit which insults freedom, as he uses the power to do whatever he wants simply
to imprison life in the same tedious circle, again and again.

Body Paragraph 2 (With a transition sentence—underlined, in green)

Yet, as much as the experience of beholding the people of her town is, for Nomi, an

opportunity to see how people answer the question of what to do with life, her relationship

to the novel’s minor characters is sometimes much more engaged, such that Nomi forms a

part of the character’s unique pursuit of distraction. This process of becoming the momentary

focus of someone else’s needs and desires—of their freedom to pursue distraction—is

especially clear with the “neighbour kid” (83), whose efforts to entertain herself often involve

Nomi. In one of her earlier encounters with the kid, Nomi submits to the girl’s clinging

attachment, as she “walked across the yard with her hanging on my leg.” Nomi’s sense of

indulgence becomes apparent when she reflects that she can only get the kid “to let go…by

agreeing to make my famous face;” this “face,” rather than the use of force or hostility that

Nomi herself may experience at the hands of her peers or even her sister Tash, is a more playful

accommodation of the world that she offers people in need. In other words, the kindness that

is so often “complicated” in Nomi’s immediate family, finds a simpler, or uncomplicated, outlet

in her bond with this minor character. The effect on Nomi is an unusual chance to be kind
without unpredictable consequences, in other words, with the confidence that her own ability

to read the needs of others is perceptive and will, therefore, not go unappreciated. In their

final encounter, while packing her car to leave the village, Nomi repeatedly submits to the girl’s

gameful imagination without betraying her preoccupation with loading the car and the more

pressing concerns of her private life. After the kid declares that “she had a good idea” (241)

Nomi begins to guess the idea, playfully sabotaging the girl’s adventurous sense of “good” by

making responsible suggestions, such as that the girl wants to “clean [her] room” or “drink [her]

milk.” Each guess is greeted with the same protracted “Nooooooo,” a response whose

lengthiness expresses the girl’s comfort around Nomi, the security to let her words run a bit

wild. However, as well as the feeling of safety that Nomi inspires is her own observation of the

details that make the kid adorable, or a perfect actor in her own staging of this guessing game.

This minor character, with her “finger on her cheek the whole time,” shows that in her

smallness, as a person who occupies only slight portion of the whole novel, she is again an

opportunity for Nomi to exercise her comedic appreciation, or her recognition of how people

make the human landscape of East Village so amusing.