Dilemma and the misery from which it emanates is a pervasive theme in Colum McCann’s book Let the Great World Spin. Within the pages of his work, he uses this tenet to tie together his diverse characters in a diverse city. Both these things are as present inside the heart of the educated judge as well as the seedy prostitute. They lift up and beat down these characters, completely surrounding them. They dominate their lives, and is as recognized as the turbulence of the 1970s New York City in which this novel is set. They serve to fulfill the clichéd statement “Love conquers all”, and make sense of many of the actions characters in the book. In this case, misery and love make sense of the decisions of a prostitute named Tillie in the book. Tillie is an aging black hooker who dearly loves her daughter. Near the beginning of the book, Tillie is portrayed as a seemingly generic prostitute peddling her wares in the dark alleys of Gotham City and overseen by a seemingly omnipresent pimp who seems to be lurking around every dark corner. As the story progresses, however, a special dimension is added to this generic character. She is shown to exhibit many characteristics in common with other struggling single parents. She is a mother burdened with the responsibility of creating a better life for her daughter, who is also a prostitute like her mother. However, this creation of a better life draws upon her only source of income: selling her body. Torn between her love for her daughter and her self-respect, she chooses to sacrifice her self-respect for the sake of her daughter. Sadly, her labor is in vain. Day after day passes without any significant change in either of their lives. Nevertheless, the fire of love inside Tillie’s heart is not put out. This love transcends any trace of embarrassment or loss of self-esteem as Tillie engaged in her occupation. Despite this, instances in which Tillie mourn the loss of her dignity may be witnessed in many places within the text. She is torn between her love for her daughter and her own emotional state. Characters in both the real world and countless fictional ones often face dilemmas. Individuals confronted with a forked path often try to run from the need to choose an itinerary. Despite all futile efforts, the decision always manages to return and necessitate confrontation. The choice between dignity and the chance of a better life for her daughter returns to Tillie throughout the course of the book, constantly reminding her of her unfortunate situation. Dignity includes quitting prostitution and obtaining a decent job, but perhaps forfeiting the chance of giving her daughter a path out of her misery. But she renounces that path. Going the way of loving her daughter, she quite literally sacrifices herself for her but loses her dignity and to an extent her identity in the process. Amidst the everlasting turmoil, the prostitute holds fast to the faith that someday, somehow, she would be able to give her daughter the best and nothing but the best. Her daughter would not have to be a prostitute. She would be a princess residing within a castle in the clouds. This flame of belief drives Tillie onward. The combined grief and love drive her onward as much as they do other the other characters, giving rationale for their actions and tying back to the author’s thesis that grief and tribulation unites people and makes them stronger. But her emotions and self-esteem take a turn for the worse. Tillie does make attempts to preserve her self-respect. She refuses to reveal the true nature of her daughter, keeping a grotesque aspect of their work hidden. She shudders at the thought of her own daughter being treated thus at the hands of her clients. She mourns the fact that her daughter, too, is locked in the business of selling her body. However, there is realistically nothing that she could do for her. Both are in poverty, and prostitution is the only reason that is capable of keeping the two of them afloat. Like many of the other grievances of other characters within this book, this grief is more or less permanent. The better life Tillie wishes to create for her daughter is akin to a carrot on a stick: it will most likely never happen. Despite this, she is still driven by the vision of what she will create. Likewise, the other grieving characters in the book are all driven by their visions and goals, whether they be to keep alive memories of deceased loved ones or other actions that are largely futile and may never alleviate the grief. Even though these dilemmas are painful, they are so central to the existence of the characters that a change in their nature results in utter disaster.
Tillie’s dilemma is so central to her existence that a change of its nature leads to her eventual suicide as implied in the story. Soon after she and her daughter were convicted of robbery charges and sent to jail, her daughter is snatched from her arms. When her daughter is killed in a car crash, the source of Tillie’s hope and inspiration is dragged out from under her. This event serves to echo another of the author’s purposes: loss. Even though the conflict of the two desires is gone, it is so ingrained in Tillie’s very existence that is has, in a sense, become the meaning of her existence. Grief makes up her identity. This is extremely evident in the sadness she displays at her daughter’s funeral. Bidding farewell to her daughter with an expletive-laced farewell speech, Tillie is sent back to jail shortly after the funeral. Her condition in jail deteriorates rapidly as the source of her inspiration is now absent. Although her daughter is gone, Tillie still remembers her in the recesses of her thoughts. But she fails, as with all grieving parents, to realize that it was not her own fault that her daughter had died. She is now strangled in an endless vortex of grief that will eventually overcome her. The perpetual dissatisfaction and torment she has been feeling most of her life returns in a much more potent form confined to her mind without roots in physical things. As she recounts her life as a hooker, she chastises herself, calling herself a mistake and grieving over the loss of her inspiration in life. This ties back to the theme of grief, except that Tillie has to experience it alone. Without a support group, her condition quickly deteriorates and the author implies that she eventually hung herself while she was in jail.
The character of Tillie is used by the author in order to display the consequences of going through suffering largely alone. The nature of suffering based on hard decisions is survivable if one goes through it with companions, but one quickly succumbs to being damned alone. Tillie’s conflict between her self-respect and taking care of her daughter is central to her existence and is the force that drives her. An event that brought about a change in its nature, the death of her daughter, is enough to persuade her to eventually take her own life. In a way, the author uses this character to imply that the grief and the lifelong need to address the conflict of difficult internal differences is a central theme to anybody’s existence. Tillie’s actions are, once again, evidence of the clichéd but true saying “Love conquers all”. Yes, love conquers all, but conflict also conquers all. Love and conflict can either give one will to live or take away one’s will to do so.