Ethan Character Analysis in Our Missing Hearts

Ethan is a middle-aged white man who works at Harvard’s University’s library. He is Bird’s father and Margaret’s husband. As Bird’s sole guardian, Ethan is very aware that his actions and beliefs directly impact his son’s safety under PACT law. Consequently, he spends most of his time fearfully keeping his head down and encouraging Bird to do the same. Ethan’s library job hints at his true passion for words, a passion he shared with Margaret, though he actively tries to repress it in the novel’s present. During the Crisis, he and Margaret find refuge from the world’s unrest in each other, and he defends her against his own parents when they question her loyalties as a Chinese American. He supports, too, Margaret’s difficult decision to leave the family, and he fully commits to publicly denouncing the woman he loves to protect their son. Ethan’s fear underscores the culture of surveillance in this imagined America, where parents lose custody of their children for saying the wrong thing. Though Bird does not always understand his father’s actions, it becomes clear over the course of the novel that Ethan’s denigration of Margaret and his adherence to strict pro-PACT ideologies are motivated by his desire to protect his son at all costs.

Ethan Quotes in Our Missing Hearts

The Our Missing Hearts quotes below are all either spoken by Ethan or refer to Ethan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Free Speech, Patriotism, and the Corruption of Truth Theme Icon

You’d have to be a lunatic, Bird had agreed, to overturn PACT. PACT had helped end the Crisis; PACT kept things peaceful and safe. Even kindergarteners knew that. PACT was common sense, really. If you acted unpatriotic, there would be consequences. If you didn’t, then what were you worried about? And if you saw or heard of something unpatriotic, it was your duty to let the authorities know. He has never known a world without PACT; it is as axiomatic as gravity, or Thou shalt not kill. He didn’t understand why anyone would oppose it, what any of this had to do with hearts, how a heart could be missing. How could you survive without your heart beating inside you?

Related Characters: Ethan, Bird (Noah), Margaret

Related Symbols: Hearts

Page Number and Citation: 21

Explanation and Analysis:

In this quote’s context, Bird recalls one of the first times he read the phrase “our missing hearts,” which Ethan tells him is an anti-PACT slogan. As a child, he easily adopts his father’s opinion on the matter, accepting PACT as a law designed to protect people rather than harm them. The irony here is that PACT claims to guard children against indoctrination, yet Bird has clearly been brainwashed to accept pro-PACT edicts without question. Having been taught only one perspective on the matter, Bird equates patriotism with safety, and so people espousing unpatriotic ideas are deservedly punished. In this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus

You need to show your teacher you really get this—there should be absolutely no question you understand. PACT protects innocent children from being indoctrinated with false, subversive, un-American ideas by unfit and unpatriotic parents.

Related Characters: Ethan (speaker), Bird (Noah)

Page Number and Citation: 26

Explanation and Analysis:

After Bird asks if Ethan has heard from his mother, his father critiques his essay on PACT to ensure that his son’s answers are appropriately patriotic. That Ethan’s parental scrutiny is a response to Bird’s questions about Margaret shows that the two things are related: in order to stay safe under PACT law, Ethan and Bird must distance themselves from Margaret and present themselves as upstanding patriots in public. This means even Bird’s homework must demonstrate unwavering support of PACT; because PACT emphasizes protecting children from dangerous ideas, Bird’s education (as well as that of other children) is closely monitored. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaq

It’s dangerous to look like him, always has been. It’s dangerous to be his mother’s child, in more ways than one. His father has always known it, has always been braced for something like this, always on a hair trigger for what inevitably would happen to his son. What he’s afraid of: that one day someone will see Bird’s face and see an enemy. That someone will see him as his mother’s son, in blood or in deed, and take him away.

Related Characters: Ethan, Bird (Noah), Margaret

Page Number and Citation: 82

Explanation and Analysis:

On their way home after Bird’s failed attempt to steal a book from the library, someone assaults Bird and calls him a racial slur before Ethan comes to his defense. Here, on the heels of two stressful situations, Bird realizes that it is not only dangerous for him to be associated with Margaret as a traitor, but as a person of Asian descent. While he has been ostracized at school because of his mother’s alleged sedition, Bird’s personal experiences of racism and discrimination are less frequent because of Ethan’s efforts to keep him isolated and protected. Later, in New York, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedi

Someone was always watching, it seemed: when Bird went out without a hat and stood shivering at the bus stop; when Bird forgot his lunch and his teacher asked him if his father was giving him enough to eat. There was always someone watching. There was always someone wanting to check.

Related Characters: Bird (Noah), Margaret, Ethan

Page Number and Citation: 98

Explanation and Analysis:

On his way to visit the house where he and his parents used to live, Bird recalls the weeks after Margaret abandoned them. At that time, probably because of the rumors about Margaret’s possible seditious activities, Bird experienced a high level of surveillance from allegedly concerned neighbors. The sense that someone is “always watching” invokes Bird’s paranoia, especially when their formerly friendly neighbors report Ethan for innocuous things like sending Bird outside without a hat or letting Bird fall off of his bicycle. Since it is common knowledge that Ethan could lose custody of Bird if the authorities believe he Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore

In the quiet of Ethan’s apartment, poems came to her like timid animals emerging after a storm.

She wrote about the hush of the city, how the pulse of it had changed, with so many people gone. About love, and pleasure, and comfort. The smell of his neck in the early morning. The warm soft den of their bed at night. About finding stillness in the whirr that had been there for so long, a quiet place in the grinding, never-ending shriek of the Crisis.

Related Characters: Ethan, Margaret

Page Number and Citation: 178

Explanation and Analysis:

Weary of the increasing anti-Asian harassment she faces on the street, Margaret takes refuge in Ethan’s apartment, much to Domi’s disdain; Domi sees this action as selling out. That Margaret rediscovers her poetry in the comfort of the apartment suggests that artistic creation is, to some extent, an act of privilege. While fighting to survive, Margaret found herself unable to create art; she simply did not have the time. Now, her poems are characterized as “timid animals” who were scared away by the tumult of life but are now re-emerging. The poems themselves take the form of odes to the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum volupta

Bird. Why did I tell you so many stories? Because I wanted the world to make sense to you. I wanted to make sense of the world, for you. I wanted the world to make sense.

[…]

There are so many more stories I wish I could tell you. You’ll have to ask others—your father, your friends. Kind strangers you will meet someday. Everyone who remembers.

But in the end every story I want to tell you is the same. Once upon a time, there was a boy. Once upon a time there was a mother. Once upon a time, there was a boy, and his mother loved him very much.

Related Characters: Margaret (speaker), Bird (Noah), Ethan

Page Number and Citation: 302

Explanation and Analysis:

In the final moments of Margaret’s broadcast, before the authorities pinpoint her location, she speaks directly to Bird, even though he cannot hear her. Margaret speaks to Bird about the stories she told him growing up, saying that their purpose was to help him make sense of a senseless world. Her repetitive explanation indicates frustration and profound sorrow with the world’s senselessness, which is the reason that she will no longer be present to tell him any more stories; she has sacrificed herself trying to make the world better for his sake. Knowing that Bird cannot hear her words, Margaret Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam con

Ethan Character Timeline in Our Missing Hearts

The timeline below shows where the character Ethan appears in Our Missing Hearts. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Surveillance, Fear, and Discrimination Theme Icon

Parental Responsibility, Rights, and Experience Theme Icon

...moniker, but his mother insisted on it. Now that Bird’s mother is gone, his father (Ethan) says it is best if he goes by Noah, another change to adjust to in... (full context)

Bird knows that if Ethan sees Margaret’s letter, he’ll burn it, so he hides it in his pillowcase until he... (full context)

Ethan returns home from his job at the university’s library. Bird and his father live in... (full context)

Later, Bird and Ethan are eating in the university dining hall when they hear a commotion outside. Bird’s father,... (full context)

The Power of Art and Imagination Theme Icon

...phrase “BRING BACK OUR MISSING HEARTS.” Bird seems to recognize the phrase. He glances at Ethan, who only pulls him onward. (full context)

Privilege, Silence, and Complicity Theme Icon

...in the years after Margaret left. He saw it in pamphlets or graffitied in tunnels. Ethan told him it was an anti-PACT slogan, and Bird readily accepted that anyone opposing PACT... (full context)

After the disruption at the dining hall, Bird takes a chance and asks Ethan if he has heard from Margaret. Deathly serious, his father reiterates that Bird’s mother is... (full context)

Later, while Ethan sleeps, Bird takes out Margaret’s letter and studies the drawing closely, searching for a secret... (full context)

At school, Bird eats alone. He used to eat with Sadie, though Ethan warned him not to spend too much time with her. Today, Bird asks his science... (full context)

...home from school, Bird sees a crowd and police officers gathered in the Common. Ignoring Ethan’s orders to walk straight home, he investigates the scene instead. Someone has woven a web... (full context)

Ignoring Ethan’s instructions to go straight home from school, Bird visits the public library for the first... (full context)

Bird decides that he will ask Ethan to check the university library for the book about the cats. Despite attempts to purge... (full context)

Bird and Ethan go to a pizza place for dinner. While they wait for their order, another customer... (full context)

...a plan to sneak into the university library. Years ago, he would go there with Ethan on the weekends and help him shelve books. Now, while his father brushes his teeth,... (full context)

...open the book when a hand falls on his shoulder, and he turns to see Ethan. (full context)

Ethan tells library security Bird was just trying to return the lost keycard. Before they leave,... (full context)

Bird follows Ethan across campus toward their apartment, knowing his father is furious but also noting the fear... (full context)

Ethan lectures Bird on what might have happened if he had been caught with the book... (full context)

Taking a chance, Bird asks Ethan if Margaret liked cats. After a moment, his father says that she did, because of... (full context)

...his childhood home on occasion, as it is not far from his apartment. Bird resents Ethan’s assumption that Bird is perfectly rule-abiding and that he never suspects Bird of disobedience. The... (full context)

...clear their neighbors were watching them closely, just as the PACT posters said. Bird and Ethan also received threats in their mailbox. Eventually, his father found his library job, and then... (full context)

...Bird enters the backyard of his childhood home, and a flood of memories overwhelms him. Ethan and Margaret had kept a garden with lush flowers and vegetables. Now, the weeds are... (full context)

On Monday, Bird tells Ethan he has forgotten his lunch. They are already in the elevator, so rather than be... (full context)

...for the last time, a fact that still haunts him. In the present, Bird leaves Ethan a short note and his mother’s letter before departing for the bus terminal, where he... (full context)

...and the man leads him upstairs to a sumptuous living room. Bird thinks fleetingly of Ethan arriving home to find him gone. Then, a young woman with blond hair—the Duchess—arrives. She... (full context)

...Domi tells Bird to wait, then she leaves. Once she is gone, Bird thinks of Ethan worrying at home. When the Duchess returns, she asks Bird personal questions that seem designed... (full context)

...messenger during the Crisis, making deliveries and scraping by like everyone else. She asks after Ethan, knowing she cannot call him and let him know that Bird is safe. She hopes... (full context)

...the apartment despite the new law prohibiting large gatherings, and this is where Margaret meets Ethan, a Columbia graduate. They talk all night on the fire escape, and the next night... (full context)

Ethan specialized in etymology and is fluent in numerous languages. Margaret suggests they learn Cantonese together.... (full context)

In Ethan’s apartment, Margaret begins to write poetry again, detailing her experiences during the Crisis. The media... (full context)

Grieving her parents, Margaret asks Ethan to take her away from the city, wanting a fresh start. His parents’ connections land... (full context)

...of PACT, though she occasionally misses her life with Domi. She becomes pregnant and meets Ethan’s parents. When the library reopens, she reads books about how animals mother their young and... (full context)

Margaret carries on, preoccupied by poetry and her garden and Bird. Ethan’s parents continue to visit, remarking that Bird looks just like Margaret. Later, she and Ethan... (full context)

...Bird eat, and she asks him about school and his father. Bird tells her how Ethan told him to go by Noah and takes good care of him. Bird expects his... (full context)

...commenters call Margaret a child abuser and hope that Family Services will come remove him. Ethan’s parents begin to believe the rumors about Margaret, and Ethan cuts contact with them. One... (full context)

...Margaret stays in libraries after closing, reading books to distract her from painful thoughts of Ethan and Bird. She discovers the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, who wrote glowing verse about Stalin,... (full context)

...little door to her old address. She sends more, increasing the number of cats, hoping Ethan and Bird will follow the clues to her. (full context)

...in until they can focus on finding her parents. Sadie gives Margaret the address for Ethan and Bird’s dorm, which is how she sent Bird’s letter. (full context)

...and remembers the argument with Margaret. He cannot understand why Margaret willingly left him and Ethan and now wants to throw away everything she has worked for. Overwhelmed by the sight... (full context)

...if the bottle caps are bombs and if his mother is dangerous. He thinks of Ethan punching the man in the Common: how his love for Bird made him dangerous. Bird... (full context)

...Before long, Domi’s car pulls up to the cabin, but Margaret is not with her. Ethan gets out of the car and embraces both children. In a flashback, Domi waits for... (full context)

The narration shifts to Ethan’s perspective as he arrives home some days earlier to find Bird missing. He sees Bird’s... (full context)

In the present, Domi and Ethan reflect on Margaret’s stubborn passion, which ultimately led to her capture. Bird, hearing this, knows... (full context)

Before Bird and Ethan leave the cabin, Domi pulls him aside. She wishes Bird could have heard Margaret’s broadcast... (full context)

Ethan Character Analysis

Ethan Quotes in Our Missing Hearts

Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

Part 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

Part 2, Chapter 2 Quotes

Part 3, Chapter 2 Quotes

Ethan Character Timeline in Our Missing Hearts