Back Roads

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain discussions of sexual and physical abuse, and incest.

Harley always wears his father’s jacket. The jacket is heavy and begins to be uncomfortable as the weather moves from spring into summer. However, Harley refuses to remove the jacket. For Harley, this jacket is a form of security that protects him from the memories of his father’s physical abuse as well as his incestuous relationship with Amber. The only time Harley removes the jacket is when he is with Callie Mercer, his next-door neighbor and lover.

In the early chapters of the novel, Harley says, “Last year, retiring Dad’s jacket to the closet felt like giving up my skin” (57), expressing the sense of security he feels wearing it. Later in the novel, Harley continues to wear the jacket despite the fact that it is growing warmer, admitting that “various people throughout the day told me I smelled like a barn or asked me why I was wearing a coat” (297). Harley’s refusal to give up the jacket shows his emotional connection to it. Harley’s feelings about his father are complicated by the abuse his father perpetrated on the family, yet he still feels a sense of safety while wearing the jacket. More than being a connection to his father, the jacket appears to be a way to hide himself from Amber and the sexual connection they shared as children. The more Harley’s memories of that sexual connection return, the more he clings to the jacket.