Upon hearing the title, “Miro, Miro, on the Wall” for the first time, it reminded me of the famous line from Disney’s movie, Snow White, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” However, the Miro reference is made from the famous Spanish sculptor, artist, painter and ceramicist Joan Miro. I feel like McCann, titled this chapter in this particular manner for a reason. When we look at the mirror, we see the truths about ourselves and become immersed in ourselves. Similarly, Claire and Marcia were lost in their own worlds, where they could think about their own personal stories only. Claire was nervous because she was worried all the time as to how the other women would respond upon seeing how wealthy Claire actually was, while Marcia was shocked by what she had seen earlier that day about the tightrope walker. It also, can be connected to Snow White, as in how the evil stepmother was obsessed with her own beauty, similarly, Claire was lost in her own problems.
List of some primary characters:
Corrigan (protagonist in my opinion, also could be called the giver), Ciaran (Corrigan’s elder brother), Tillie (elderly prostitute), Jazzlyn (Tillie’s daughter, also a prostitute), Claire Soderberg (Wealthy woman suffering from depression due to lose of her son), Tightrope walker, Gloria (part of the bereaved mother’s group), Marcia (part of bereaved mother’s group and the woman who first talked about the tightrope walker at Claire’s house), Blaine (Responsible for Corrigan and Jazzlyn’s death), Lara Liveman (Blaine’s wife).
As of the moment, I personally counted 54 intersections, but I am pretty sure, I might have missed a couple while reading.
I feel like for me the most touching moment was when Tillie was in the prison and her grandchildren came to visit her and before they left how Tillie was trying to get their scent and touch their fingers. This moment broke my heart as in her lifetime, Tillie tried her best to do whatever she could for the family, but in the end, she felt miserable because in her mind, she hadn’t done enough. She weeps about how she was a bad guardian to her own daughter, Jazzlyn. Also, this moment has a lot of emotions in it because Tillie tried her best to keep Jazzlyn away from the prostitute life, but in the end, Jazzlyn ended up being one. So now, when she sees her granddaughters in someone else’s care, it might make her feel even more miserable as in her thinking, neither was she a good mother nor a good grandmother. Just thinking about living through that pain is agonizing. There is a possibility, that maybe if I had been in such a situation, I would have done what Tillie did. At that moment, death would seem an easier option than living. It is sad, what she had to go through.
