The Passage
A Novel by Justin Cronin
Character Analysis
Amy is a very mysterious character, with very little being revealed about her for long periods of time. She is first described as a young girl, but the first true description of her isn't found until Amy first appears at the colony in Los Angeles. She is described as being between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, with long dark hair. She is also capable of communicating with animals and the virals(people infected with the virus). Perhaps Amy's most powerful trait is he extreme loneliness. Being abandoned at an early age, Amy constantly looks for someone or something to latch on to. The first is her stuffed bear Peter, followed by Sister Lacey, a nun at the convent she was left at, then the federal agent who is sent to retrieve her. The government program succeeds on Amy, but in turn prolongs her loneliness, as she wanders across the remains of civilization for nearly ninety years alone until she discovers a colony of survivors in Los Angeles, which is when she finally makes her first long lasting connection with Peter, one of the colonists. She then does her best to fit in with the colonists as they travel back to Colorado. Throughout the book, she also thinks back to the man who loved her, Brad Wolgast, indicating that she longs for an emotional connection. Perhaps the greatest example of Amy's loneliness is when she asks, "Are we the all? For I have seen no one , no man or woman, in all the years and years. Is there no I but I?" After saving Peter from the Virals at an abandoned shopping center, she then states, "Where are they? The men and women on their horses that i should go to them and find them? For I have been alone through all the years and years, no I but I."