Levine's Mother
She posthumously makes an appearance in Levine's "Burial Rites." He buried her decades ago, but her grave almost beckons Levine to join her. Her final resting place is one of absolute stillness, non-action, which holds a strong appeal to the living. Resting under a timid lilac bush, she serves in death as a tether which centers Levine for the remainder of his life.
The Mother
In "Detroit, Tomorrow" this woman's struggle the day after her son's murder is the representation of injustice. She wakes too early and remains tired, walking through the motions of a normal morning, not ye able to recognize why this morning is different from all the others. While the circumstances of her life continue as they have every day previous, she is forever changed. No word from a kind stranger or friend can remedy what she has lost. She is lost.
"The Gatekeeper's Children"
These seven children live on their own, behind a wealthy person's home. Their existence is liminal, between desirable and feared. Because they are children, they are symbols of hope and enthusiasm and joy, but their sorry conditions instill a kind of despair in the casual observer. In a sense, they don't belong to either world, which is why they live behind a house. More significantly, their title as "gatekeeper's children" is ironic because there is no gatekeeper. In a sense, they are the collective gatekeeper between the acceptable and the unacceptable.
