Future Home of the Living God

Sera Songmaker is Cedar’s adoptive mother. She is a smart, successful, liberal woman who stands by her family even though they have hurt her in the past. She cares deeply for her adopted daughter, even though Cedar is a living reminder of her husband’s infidelity. Sera is strong enough to move past her husband’s betrayal for the sake of the daughter she loves. Though Cedar and Sera frequently argue, their bond is among the strongest in the novel. The enduring, complicated nature of the relationship between them demonstrates the complexity and nuance of motherhood. In a world where humanity suffers betrayal by its own biology, the relationship between Sera and Cedar demonstrates that blood ties are less important than personal relationships forged by authentic love and dedication.

Mary Potts is Cedar’s biological mother. As a teenager, she had an affair with Glen and gave birth to his child, Cedar, but gave Cedar up for adoption by Glen and Sera. When Cedar becomes pregnant, she seeks out Mary, not only to determine whether there are familial health issues but also to better understand herself. Mary provides a natural counterpoint to Sera: Mary is more laidback, whereas Sera is obsessive and politically focused (for example, Mary is a smoker, in contrast to Sera who spends years railing against the evils of tobacco companies). Similarly, Mary is a devout Catholic, and Sera is a staunch atheist.

In the instance of religion, Cedar is more like her biological mother. They share a belief in Catholicism, a religion that venerates the Virgin Mary. Cedar, who grew up not knowing her biological mother, and Mary, who gave up her daughter to be raised by another woman, both develop a deep religious belief that bestows adoration on a holy mother. Both women have difficulty understanding the traditional concept of motherhood, but religion gives them clarity and purpose.

By the end of the novel, Mary does not replace Sera as a mother figure in Cedar’s life; Cedar admits that she considers Mary to be more of a big sister. The complexity in the relationship between biological mother and daughter emphasizes that motherhood transcends mere blood ties. Cedar will always see Sera as her primary mother, and this is not due to Mary’s fault or failure. Rather, the novel’s nuanced portrayal of these relationships suggests that motherhood is multi-faceted.

Glen Songmaker plays a dual role as Cedar’s biological and adoptive father. After an affair that threatened his marriage with Sera, Glen decided to raise Cedar as his daughter. However, he never revealed to her that he was her biological father. Cedar learns of his paternity and resents him at first, before realizing that Glen’s lie was a way of honoring his wife’s relationship with her. Glen feared that if he were to be seen as a biological parent and Sera not, this conflict would compromise Cedar’s view of her parents’ equality. As she comes to understand her father’s motives, Cedar’s anger fades and she reconciles with his past secrecy.

Glen is also defined by his absence. In a novel about motherhood, Glen plays the role of an absent father. He spends Cedar’s childhood hiding his biological relationship to her, and upon Cedar’s adulthood, he disappears entirely. He dedicates himself to helping women flee the United States for Canada, and, while his actions are self-sacrificial, they also ensure his distance from his daughter. Sera, Mary, and Eddy must take over Glen’s role in Cedar’s life. Glen’s absence—from Cedar’s life, narrative, and identity—further complicates the idea of motherhood and radically questions the necessity of masculine influence. Despite his absence (both physical and relational), Cedar reaches her own fully meaningful grasp of motherhood. Motherhood, for Cedar, is thus defined in an entirely female capacity.

Eddy is a Native American with a doctorate and a desire to change the world. Prior to the novel’s narrative, he tried to reform the school system on the reservation where he lives—and, while he failed, the collapse of society gives Eddy the motivation and opportunity he needs to try again to help his people. The hardship imbues him with a sense of purpose, and he fosters a tight-knit, caring community who have the power to defy the religious zealots threatening women’s lives. Eddy develops a grit and resourcefulness to match his innate intelligence and empathy.

Finding a purpose was always Eddy’s goal. In a long, unfinished manuscript, he’s detailed the thousands of reasons keeping him from suicide. As he rebuilds his Native community and reclaims the land that was stolen from his people, Eddy no longer needs to conjure up increasingly disparate reasons to live; he finds meaning in community.

Phil is one of the novel’s most tragic characters. While his trauma is no graver than that of the women he tries to help, he suffers an erosion of his very identity, and this psychic wound eventually leads to a compromised ethic.

Phil is the father of Cedar’s unborn child, and the collapse of society gives him the chance to finally become the hero. He not only helps Cedar to stay hidden from the predatory church organizations, but he also hides other women. Helping people seems to make heroism achievable for Phil—but his greatest triumphs become his greatest downfall. He is caught and tortured by the authorities. Under coercion, he reveals Cedar’s location, and she is imprisoned.

After this personal fall from grace, Phil can no longer see himself as a hero. The torture has left many scars on his body, but the pain of forsaken heroism is the greater anguish. He never recovers from this trauma to his identity. Tempted to resign himself to the corrupt governing powers, he suggests to Cedar that they cooperate with and benefit from the new social order. His compromised sense of self gives way to an abject self-loathing.

Mother is a hazy apparition who appears, unbidden, on computer and television screens. Resembling a stern middle-aged woman, Mother essentially practices evangelism, calling directly upon all pregnant women (and eventually all women of childbearing age) to turn themselves over to the new religious government. An overt foil to the Catholic church’s priesthood of “Fathers,” Mother is a kind of high priestess of the Church of the New Constitution. In the hospital prison in which Cedar ultimately finds herself, Mother relentlessly broadcasts her “sermons” to a captive audience and promises eternal life and forgiveness to the imprisoned congregation.

It is unclear whether Mother is an actual person or a computer algorithm, and this spectral quality accentuates her spiritual office. Moreover, the ambiguity of her personhood furnishes the novel’s persistent emphasis on uncertainty. Regardless of the indeterminacy of her existence, however, her effect on others is as real as anything else.

Mother represents, to Cedar, those negative qualities that Cedar would hope to never embody as a mother: strict, controlling, and brutal. Cedar hides from Mother, just as she hides from this idea of merciless motherhood. Mother thus powerfully symbolizes an archaic, punitive form of parenting that is not only antithetical to Cedar’s own aspirations, but which the new religious government intends to institute.

Little Mary is Cedar’s biological half-sister. She is still a teenager and, mirroring Cedar’s own search for identity, she explores different aspects of herself throughout the novel. She tries on ideas, identities, and outfits once before discarding them, searching for something meaningful. Her heavy makeup and goth aesthetic give way to a preppy fashion as society collapses, and these revisions of personal style reflect a desire to set herself apart within a tight-knit community. Similarly, the incredibly messy state of Little Mary’s bedroom (the floor piled high with discarded clothes and other junk) symbolizes her disorganized identity formation.