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: Margaret, Bird (Noah), Ethan

Related Symbols: Hearts

Page Number and Citation: 21

Explanation and Analysis:

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:

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:

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:

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: Margaret, Ethan

Page Number and Citation: 178

Explanation and Analysis:

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), Ethan, Bird (Noah)

Page Number and Citation: 302

Explanation and Analysis:

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