Comparison of Harry and Miranda

Dubus’ main characters Miranda of Miranda over the Valley and Harry from If They Knew Yvonne each struggle with similar vexes with sexuality but show some vast contrasts in their personal choices and feelings about their “sins”. While Miranda struggles more so before the sin and then falls apart Harry seems to care more before committing the sin. This, as well as Harry’s wish for repentance, affects greatly how the characters and stories are to be viewed.

One may find it interesting that Harry grows up his whole life in a blatantly more religious life than Miranda does and for this reason fears his potential sin more than she did in the beginning of the story but is perhaps desensitized to the idea of sin and thus feels the affects far less. Harry is so used to hearing about sin that it’s a normal everyday thing and he doesn’t really notice it once his addiction starts. And the fact that he so commonly and without consequence asks for forgiveness and receives it furthers his bad habits. Miranda on the other hand feels much worse about her sin but for different reasons and in different ways.

If They Knew Yvonne is a much more religiously based story and because of this Harry turns to religious forgiveness and also looks to religious sin. He does not, until the end, realize that his sin hurts Yvonne and not God. Miranda is more focused on the earthly world but also because of this does not look for repentance. Miranda fears no god and thus does not seek their approval. In an almost Dante-esque way, she ignores God and chooses sin, thus negating the possibility of repentance (being a divine grace) and chooses a life of sin, torture, and suffering. This is easily the biggest difference between Harry and Miranda as Harry searches for some kind of closure while Miranda simply accepts her new life of complete sin and sorrow.