THEME

The predominant theme in A Complicated Kindness is how Naomi struggles to find hope throughout her stressful life. Hope is displayed through several character's actions and words. After Naomi's sister and mother abandon her, she has hope that eventually they will be united one day. She finds her mother's passport in a drawer. She figures that this does not support her assumption of her mother moving somewhere new, because she would need her passport to travel. She believed that her mom felt adventurous owning a passport because it made her feel as if "she actually might one day get on a plane and fly away to a magical place" (Toews 8). This sense of hope reflects off of Naomi as she continues to think about how desperately she wants to leave the Mennonite community just as her mother and sister have. Naomi comes across hope again, when she says how she used to read stories about Christian kids being mischievous. She stated how they always got into trouble, "but always, always, they [learned] something about sin and forgiveness at the end" (136). This most likely foreshadows her outlook on her future. She feels that even if she ends up committing a sin by departing from the Mennonite community, she has hope that in the end she will learn her lesson and she will be forgiven, as opposed to being completely ignored by those who oppose her future decisions. A final place where hope is represented is when the novel ends on a hopeful tone. Naomi finally accepted that living in this Mennonite community has taught her a lesson. This lesson is that everyone has a chance of redemption. She is hopeful that her newfound faith will lead her to "believe in the possibility of a happy family reunion someday" (324). Due to the fact that she is missing half of her family and that her dreams are broken, the only existing aspect of Naomi's life that keeps her going is her hope.