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CRC Blog
Analysis
on THE DNA OF YOU AND ME
by Andrea
Rothman
“Settling
For One Box Is Overrated”
“Motherhood
is overrated, if you ask me. Human company is overrated”
Emily
Apell, The DNA of You and Me, page 156
Emily Apell always felt like the outsider for two reasons: her mother abandoning her when she was only
three months old; and her severe allergy to grass that forces her to stay in
the family den looking out the window as the world passes her by, which results
in her not being accepted by her peers and community, forcing her to live like
a recluse.
She finally outgrows her allergy by the time she reaches her
teens, but still feels unaccepted. She
also feels a sense of abandonment not necessarily by her mother but by a part
of herself she has yet to know that could only be found in her mother. And she only discovers this part of herself
when she has an imaginary encounter with her mother.
her knocking on my door and me opening it and seeing her, and slowly coming to recognize in her something about myself that I didn’t quite know, or understand.
Page
24
There are three things, however, she is not allergic to and
craves with all the passion she can muster: competition, looking through a
microscope, and the memories of her beloved father, who was also a scientist. She always knew her choice of career would be science the only thing and the best thing she knows, which is not surprising to her or her own father. Her whole life was within the four walls of her sterilized home and the four walls of her father’s lab. Science was her only faithful companion and the only thing she knows.
As she walks down the halls of the McKinnon Lab, she finally feels she is on the cusp of greatness, but soon discovers she is not welcome and actually resented by scientists Aeden Doherty and Allegra Meltzer, both who happen be partners in researching the exact same thing she was hired by Justin to do, which she, as well as other experts in the field, deems to be unethical.
Fellow scientist Aeden Doherty makes her confront the idea of
another box when the two fall in love and become more than just co-workers, friends
and confidants but lovers, sharing their pasts and their dreams of the
future. Emily shares with him her
painful childhood, her treasured memories of her father, the abandonment of her
mother, and her dreams of someday owning her own lab.
Aeden shares with Emily his reason for being on the project is
due to his mother, who has anosmia. He
shares with Emily that he witnessed his mother fall down the parking lot stairs
four years ago. The impact of the fall
caused her shearing off of her nerve endings in her olfactory bulb making it
impossible for her to smell. She has the lifelong condition of anosmia. Aeden knows that the cure will not be made in
his mother’s lifetime but he hopes to help find a cure out of love for his
mother.
By her own choosing, she is closing herself to every possibility
that does not exist in her box of becoming a scientist. Is it impossible for her to have any other
kind of world outside of her career, a mistake that many working women, and in
fact, working men face.
And perhaps Emily’s greatest fear is the inability or reluctance
to rationally discuss the possibility of living outside the box. Even the
thought of having that kind of conversation makes her feel like the little girl
running away from the grassy yard to the sterile den in her home, looking out
of the window, feeling safe but at what expense is this safety?
When Justin gives her vouchers to go to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art she decides to go – more out of need from giving her brain a break after
studying her gene over and over again than mere interest. It is at the
Metropolitan Museum that she explores a world outside of science – that of
art. Emily is drawn to the painting Portrait of Writer Vsevolod Mikhailovich
Garshin by Ilya Repin because the man in the painting looks almost
identical to Aeden. An employee from the Metropolitan Museum of Art approaches
her and she tells him the man in the painting reminds her of someone she knows.
“That’s a sad story, “ I said, recalling what Aeden had told me
about his mother.
“Are you an artist?”
“No,”
“Do you paint at all?”
“I wish I knew how,” I caught myself saying, and realized it was
true.
Page 87
Emily thinks the painting is a self-portrait but is surprised to
learn that it is a painter Repin and painting subject Garshin are two different
people. Emily tells the man that she
thought it was self-portrait and he tells her that if it were a self-portrait
he would have to hold the mirror in a certain position. At the mention of hearing him speak the word
mirror, Emily realizes something about the gene she has been studying the whole
time, and this new “something” leads her closer to the gene she has been trying
to locate. Justin is very pleased at
this new discovery and what it could mean for the world of science and for his
lab.
Later, in the book, Emily seeks Justin’s advice, not about
Science, but matters close to the heart, such as life outside of science, a
life of love.
“Love?” Justin said chucking.
“You might find it, but it won’t last very long. We may feel desperately alone but deep down
what we crave is solitude. Your best bet
is here, academia. This is where you
stand the best chance of being happy, and making others happy.”
Page
187
It is possible to do both?
Emily has always been able to have dreams about her career in science; why
can’t she make room in her dreams for a relationship and marriage and even
motherhood? Isn’t it possible for her to have both? Or at least for her to consider the fact that
she could have both?
And if she realizes she can have both and does desire both will
she have a second chance of love?
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