59 pages • 1 hour read
Lamar GilesNot So Pure and Simple
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Del Rainey
Del, the story’s protagonist, unexpectedly embarks on a journey to discover what it means to be a “good man.” He is single-minded, courageous, determined, dishonest, studious, smart, funny, emotional, immature, and selfish—though he grows to be aware, empathetic, and honest. Del shows these character traits through his ongoing pursuit of Kiera and his journey to learn about healthy masculinity and honesty and respect within relationships. First, he’s determined to win Kiera’s affection and he works many schemes with a single-minded goal to become her boyfriend. His longing for the “super hot” Kiera pushes Del to pretend to be someone he’s not, to ignore Kiera’s boundaries, and to be dishonest about his motivations. Del continually lies to Kiera in the hopes of being seen as a respectful and religious boy she would want to date. Ultimately, his strategies backfire, and his friends and family intervene to show him what it means to be respectful and forthright. Del is a good person, but not necessarily always a “nice guy.”
Thanks to the influence of Cressie and Shianne, Del eventually realizes his missteps and processes his emotions and to become a better man. As a teen grappling with romantic love, adolescent sexuality, and questions of what masculinity means, Del struggles when he learns that Kiera, his dream girl, is more complicated than he thought. He initially believes he can “win” her, as if she’s a trophy, and doesn’t notice they have nothing in common. He believes he's entitled to Kiera’s affection because he’s doing his best to put himself in her path and has been infatuated with her for years. After she establishes a boundary—she only wants to be friend—Del persists in thinking he has a chance. He’s angry when confronted with the reality that Kiera, just as flawed as anyone else, makes her own choices. This ongoing anger leads to his family’s “enlightenment” meeting, which influences him to become a wiser, more empathetic, and mature person. Through the influence of people like Cressie, Shianne, and his parents, Del sees he must let go of Kiera. He becomes more mature, understanding, and forgiving—able to see Kiera as a person with flaws who doesn’t need to fit into his standards or return his romantic feelings.
Del’s moment of maturation comes through his confessional YouTube video, in which he tells the truth about who he is and the mistakes he’s made. The video is a tapestry of what Del has learned, weaving together vulnerability and social judgment, the power of telling one’s own story, and the cleansing nature of honesty. Pastor Newsome had used public confession to disempower and humiliate; Taylor used public confession to take back her power, tell her own story, and educate. Del wants his video to counteract his long history of inauthenticity, make amends to the people he’s hurt, and tell his story in such a way that he’s allowed to return to church. He admits he’s a virgin, apologizes, and takes responsibility for his actions.
Kiera Westing
Kiera is Del’s love interest and supposed ideal girl. She’s complicated, simultaneously religiously devout, beautiful, protective, forgiving, understanding, studious, serious, conflicted, guilty, and dishonest. Del describes her only in terms of her physical assets and knows very little else about her, using disrespectful, physically focused language that reflects The Construction of Masculinity: “She hadn’t smiled once since service started, though she still looked hot hot. Volcano hot. Dragon hot. Summer barbecue in southern hell hot. Happy or sad, there was no changing that” (3). For most of the novel, Del treats Kiera like a gorgeous prize to win, rather than a girl with her own thoughts, feelings, and goals. Thus, readers slowly learn she takes her religious convictions seriously, as shown by scenes such as her answering the others’ questions babies born with Down’s Syndrome:
‘Guys, no. Absolutely not. At least the God I believe in doesn’t punish people—babies—because He doesn’t like something their parents did. That’s monstrous. Sometimes people are born…unique.’ […] then she traced her finger down a particular page. ‘Here. Ezekiel 18:20 says, ‘the one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child’ (210).
Kiera is steadfast in her faith, so Del assumes she’s a virgin who is committed to abstinence. He also doesn’t expect her to lie to her parents about her whereabouts, but she designs multiple lies when she wants to protect Jameer from his strict parents or protect the Pledgers from being caught returning from Jaylan’s panel discussion. Kiera’s quick-thinking plans buy them the necessary time, but her lies show she’s not above being dishonest. Still, Kiera weighs her options and chooses to protect her friends, such as Jameer, from strict punishment. She’s a natural leader and protective of the Pledgers, so she takes action to keep them safe, even if she must lie.
Likewise, Kiera’s religious faith is complicated: she is a devout Christian but breaks the abstinence pledge when she has sex with Mason. The revelation that she’s had sex with Mason is further complicated when she admits she wasn’t a virgin before the pledge either. Because she felt guilty over her sexual past, she took her guilt and shame out on Del when he she accused him of not being a virgin. She asks Jaylan how to move on from the guilt, so Kiera struggles forgiving herself. Forgiveness in general is complicated for her. Colossus repeatedly was unfaithful (or tried to be). Because Kiera was taught to forgive, she put up with his disrespectful behavior too long. Kiera’s choices don’t always align with her faith, but she explains that she thinks for herself and doesn’t want to be judged by Del or anyone else. Since she’s faithful but doesn’t always follow her religion’s teachings, Kiera is a complex character and is a catalyst for Del to learn about consent, respect in relationships, authenticity, and letting go.
Cressie (Cressida) Rainey
Cressie, Del’s sister, is strong, passionate, intelligent, courageous, authentic, and motivated. As a college student and YouTube content creator with the show FemFam, she uses social media to bring awareness to important issues of women’s empowerment, the Sexual Double Standard, and Respect in Relationships. Though others may be scared to share their stories or put their face online, Cressie is a brave, loud voice for equality for women. She wants to improve society by educating and enlightening people about the issues women face daily. Cressie shows her passion in multiple scenes, such as when she describes her project to Del:
‘Because I’m doing my sociology semester project on Modern Feminism versus Societal Mores. My YouTube channel is part of it, but when I told my professor about the ‘scandal’ in my town she encouraged me to incorporate more points of view, and loaned me some sweet gear to make it happen. I reached out to Taylor and she wanted to talk, had a ton to say.’ […]
I sat next to her, repeated my earlier question. ‘What’s that got to do with Taylor?’
‘It’s not obvious? Society expects people to reproduce. […] But, depending on the specific society, there are a lot of funky rules about who, when, how people have babies. I’m not arguing about which society has the best baby rules, but what’s consistent in many parts of the world is when a birth happens outside of a society’s rules, and people in power don’t like it, blame is placed on the woman. She’s fast, a whore, a slut. As if every birth that doesn’t get the power player’s stamp of approval is immaculate conception. No male participation at all. Sadly, nothing new there. What’s interesting is Taylor’s young, and calling out that behavior through the most powerful tool available to any oppressed class, social media’ (222).
She also raves about Jaylan and influences Del and the Pledgers to see Jaylan’s talk, which helps them learn and grow. Though Del at first denies that her work is meaningful, when he finally watches her videos and understands them, he’s changed by Cressie’s effective videos on respect, relationships, masculinity, and equal rights.
Cressie’s clear passion for women’s rights, feminism, and deconstructing toxic masculinity is key to Del’s journey. Cressie teaches him the ways men make women feel like prey and how society has ingrained in him these harmful ideals of toxic masculinity. She points out that he’s adopted the idea that he should go get the girl instead of treating her like an equal human who can say no to his advances. She kindly tries to enlighten Del by sharing the story of her sexual assault. Though Del feels bad for her, he takes Cressie’s advice defensively at first. Later, he realizes his sister is only trying to make him a better, more aware, and conscientious man who truly listens to women and respects them. With Cressie’s help and by learning about her painful sexual assault, he learns to own up to his mistakes with Kiera. He even emulates Cressie’s example by sharing his truth on her YouTube channel. Cressie is a positive, hard-working, and purpose-driven young woman who makes a difference in Del’s life and in the lives of her many viewers, showing her influence and passion to help make the world safer for all women and educate all men.
