| Character Analysis |
| As I read Toxin I became fascinated by the ways that both Tracy Reggis and Dr. Kim Reggis changed close to continually both to each other and individually. Kim went from an almost self-absorbed doctor to an insane parent to a do-good citizen. Tracy went from a vindictive ex-wife to a very concerned parent to a concerned ex-wife and an accomplice to Kim in his schemes to bring down the meat industry. But most intriguing had to have been their reaction to each other; they went from cool politness to bickering parents to need the support of the other to helping each other in bringing down the meat industry and those who are involoved in it including the USDA. |
| Dr. Kim Reggis started off in the book as a doctor that was completely focused on his patients and had very little, if any, time for his family. He was even late for picking up his own daughter. He made the transformation to concerned father when Becky’s food poisoning wouldn’t lessen. We went so far as to consulted with a pediatrician at one of the hospitals that he works at. Yet when Becky was taken to the hospital he became obsessed with her illness and knowing anything and everything about it that he could. He insisted on knowing what HUS was even when he had been warned that he really wouldn’t want to know about the disease. He begins to feel helpless when he sees that Becky is slipping away and there is nothing that he could do to help her. It is my own personal opinion that he went just a little insane when he went to save Becky by performing open-heart restoration and found that the disease had turned her heart to mush. However, he then displays a single minded determination to finding the source of her illness and then, once he finds it, to expose those who were at the cause of it when he follows the trail of factories to the source of them, Mercer Meats. I firmly believe that the good doctor had evolved both mentally and emotionally for the better. |
| Tracy started off in the book as a vindictive ex-wife of a doctor that spent most of his time with his patients. She proved this fact when she openly told Kelly Anderson, a reporter, that they were divorced and that he was hardly ever around. She then digresses in both moral and character when she blames Kim’s girlfriend for Becky’s food poisoning, saying that the chicken she had cooked was probably the cause if it. She then progressed in morals and mentally, but only a little, when she tries to be the calming influence for Kim when he starts to go just a little insane, by telling him that he needs to calm down and think of what is best for Becky. She then progresses even further when she stops blaming Kim and tries to comfort him through the grief and can even admit that she needs him as well. Tracy, even though she digressed for a little bit, also evolves emotionally, mentally, and morally through out Toxin. |
| However, like I said, the most fascinating change by far in Toxin has to be the way that they interact with each other. In the beginning of the book they are stand offish almost as if Kim is bitter about the divorce and Tracy is co9ldly trying to berate him for his parenting skill, or lake there of. The go from being stand offish to bickering when Becky gets sick over the cause of her illness. Yet even though they bickered, they still comforted each oth3er through her illness once it had progressed to her being hospitalized. After the death of their daughter they lean on each other to get through her death and the preparations for her funeral. They progressed even more when Tracy joins Kim ion his quest to bring those responsible for Becky’s illness and then death to justice. Their relationship progresses to that of a possible recoup. Even though there individual advancements are interesting their change in attitude towards each other is much more interesting. |