In “Hope and Other Punch Lines”, the entire plot line is entered around 9/11 and how it affected everyone. It focuses on the main character, Abbi, who is known as “Baby Hope”; the baby from the photo of 9/11 who instilled hope into everyone’s hearts. The characters in this novel are divided into three categories, Picture people, Hope Fans, and The Mourners.
The first category, Picture People, consists of those who are in the Baby Hope picture. Even though public attention is fixated on Abbi, the other characters in the photo are still affected. These people are the ones who were called and interviewed every 9/11 anniversary and have to go through the horror all over again. Something they have in common with some of the Hope Fans is the 9/11 cough, where their lungs get cancer/diseased and they eventually die.
The Hope Fans are pretty straightforward. They are the people who recognise Abbi as Baby Hope and come up to her, sobbing and glorifying her as a national treasure. The second they recognise her, most of them have an epiphany and everything just clicks. This category also overlaps with the next one, The Mourners.
The Mourners are those who were either one of the people who survived the 9/11 terrorist attack, or those who had a loved one perish during it. These people, like the others, will never forget. Their lives, in some way, revolve around 9/11; which is understandable because they are fundamentally changed. A lot of their current issues (PTSD, addiction, bad choices) are influenced by 9/11.
All of these categories are alike in some way. All of them will never forget; they will always remember and therefor will always be affected. Most of these characters in the categories also have health problems linked to 9/11. Cancer, lung disease, and in Abbi’s case, a tumor. Every group is based on how the author classified the characters in her novel. I think these categories really show how everyone was affected by the attack.
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