On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

by

Ocean Vuong

A woman in Little Dog’s Hartford neighborhood who goes door-to-door petitioning for stop signs to be put up in the area. Marsha has two sons, Kyle and Kevin, and she wants them to be safe. Soon after, Kevin dies of a drug overdose, and Kyle dies the same way five years later. Marsha’s sons represent the pervasiveness of drug use and addiction in 21st-century American society, and the character of Marsha underscores the difficulty parents have in keeping their children safe from such a widespread epidemic.
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Marsha Character Timeline in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

The timeline below shows where the character Marsha appears in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 3
Drugs and Addiction  Theme Icon
...growing up in Hartford, Little Dog says, but they weren’t always there. A woman named Marsha used to go door-to-door with a petition for stop signs. Her sons played in the... (full context)