The Overstory

by

Richard Powers

Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman Character Analysis

Dorothy Brinkman (née Cazaly) is a stenographer from St. Paul, Minnesota. After a tempestuous courtship, she marries Ray Brinkman in the 1970s, and the two build a life together. Dorothy is fickle and independent, very concerned with maintaining her freedom and not becoming anyone’s property, so she resists the idea of marriage for a long time, though she loves Ray deeply. When she and Ray find that they cannot have children, however, Dorothy becomes dissatisfied with her life again, moving from hobby to hobby and then having an affair. After Ray has a brain aneurysm and is barely able to move or speak, the two repair their relationship over many years, especially bonding over reading and discovering the natural world in their own backyard. Previously impatient and temperamental, Dorothy eventually slows to the pace of Ray’s new brain and finds peace with him through exploring the trees out their window and letting their suburban yard grow wild. Like Ray, Dorothy never meets The Overstory’s other characters in person, though she watches them on TV and reads Patricia’s book The Secret Forest. Dorothy offers an example of how even the most conventional and suburban people can help repair humanity’s relationship with trees—by learning to become patient and attentive, and letting forests grow without trying to impose human ideas of order upon them.

Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman Quotes in The Overstory

The The Overstory quotes below are all either spoken by Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman or refer to Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman. 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:
Humans and Trees Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Roots—Patricia Westerford Quotes

These people are nothing to Plant-Patty. And yet their lives have long been connected, deep underground. Their kinship will work like an unfolding book. The past always comes clearer, in the future.

Years from now, she’ll write a book of her own, The Secret Forest. Its opening page will read:

You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes….

Related Characters: Dr. Patricia “Patty” Westerford (speaker), Nicholas Hoel/Watchman, Mimi Ma/Mulberry, Adam Appich/Maple, Douglas “Douggie” Pavlicek/Doug-fir, Neelay Mehta, Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman, Ray Brinkman
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Crown Quotes

The books diverge and radiate, as fluid as finches on isolated islands. But they share a core so obvious it passes for given. Every one imagines that fear and anger, violence and desire, rage laced with the surprise capacity to forgive—character—is all that matters in the end. It's a child's creed, of course, just one small step up from the belief that the Creator of the Universe would care to dole out sentences like a judge in federal court. To be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one, and to mistake life for something huge with two legs. No: life is mobilized on a vastly larger scale, and the world is failing precisely because no novel can make the contest for the world seem as compelling as the struggles between a few lost people.

Related Characters: Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman, Ray Brinkman
Page Number: 382-383
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Seeds Quotes

In silence, he walks his lifelong partner through old and central principles of jurisprudence, one syllable at a time. Stand your ground. The castle doctrine. Self-help.

If you could save yourself, your wife, your child, or even a stranger by burning something down, the law allows you. If someone breaks into your home and starts destroying it, you may stop them however you need to.

[…]

He can find no way to say what so badly needs saying. Our home has been broken into. Our lives are being endangered. The law allows for all necessary force against unlawful and imminent harm.

[…]

In mounting excitement, he sees how he must win the case. Life will cook; the seas will rise. The planet's lungs will be ripped out. And the law will let this happen, because harm was never imminent enough. Imminent, at the speed of people, is too late. The law must judge imminent at the speed of trees.

Related Characters: Ray Brinkman (speaker), Adam Appich/Maple, Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman
Page Number: 497-498
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Overstory PDF

Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman Quotes in The Overstory

The The Overstory quotes below are all either spoken by Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman or refer to Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman. 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:
Humans and Trees Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Roots—Patricia Westerford Quotes

These people are nothing to Plant-Patty. And yet their lives have long been connected, deep underground. Their kinship will work like an unfolding book. The past always comes clearer, in the future.

Years from now, she’ll write a book of her own, The Secret Forest. Its opening page will read:

You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes….

Related Characters: Dr. Patricia “Patty” Westerford (speaker), Nicholas Hoel/Watchman, Mimi Ma/Mulberry, Adam Appich/Maple, Douglas “Douggie” Pavlicek/Doug-fir, Neelay Mehta, Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman, Ray Brinkman
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Crown Quotes

The books diverge and radiate, as fluid as finches on isolated islands. But they share a core so obvious it passes for given. Every one imagines that fear and anger, violence and desire, rage laced with the surprise capacity to forgive—character—is all that matters in the end. It's a child's creed, of course, just one small step up from the belief that the Creator of the Universe would care to dole out sentences like a judge in federal court. To be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one, and to mistake life for something huge with two legs. No: life is mobilized on a vastly larger scale, and the world is failing precisely because no novel can make the contest for the world seem as compelling as the struggles between a few lost people.

Related Characters: Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman, Ray Brinkman
Page Number: 382-383
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Seeds Quotes

In silence, he walks his lifelong partner through old and central principles of jurisprudence, one syllable at a time. Stand your ground. The castle doctrine. Self-help.

If you could save yourself, your wife, your child, or even a stranger by burning something down, the law allows you. If someone breaks into your home and starts destroying it, you may stop them however you need to.

[…]

He can find no way to say what so badly needs saying. Our home has been broken into. Our lives are being endangered. The law allows for all necessary force against unlawful and imminent harm.

[…]

In mounting excitement, he sees how he must win the case. Life will cook; the seas will rise. The planet's lungs will be ripped out. And the law will let this happen, because harm was never imminent enough. Imminent, at the speed of people, is too late. The law must judge imminent at the speed of trees.

Related Characters: Ray Brinkman (speaker), Adam Appich/Maple, Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman
Page Number: 497-498
Explanation and Analysis: