Margaret Salt Character Analysis

Overview

Margaret Salt is one of the most complex figures in Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye — a woman who begins life as an abandoned infant at the Open Arms Orphanage and later reinvents herself as the polished wife of a junior executive. Her arc moves from rootlessness to a carefully constructed identity, then to a clandestine affair, and finally to a devastating departure from her family when layers of deception collapse. Throughout the novel, she confronts her own deepest fear: that she is repeating the abandonment inflicted on her as a baby. Her story is one of survival, self-protection, and the painful cost of secrets.

Plot Role

Margaret serves as a catalyst for the novel’s central secrets. Her affair with Cal Jenkins introduces a hidden layer into both the Jenkins and Salt marriages. Her pregnancy — possibly by Cal — creates a paternity question that echoes for decades. Her eventual confession to Felix about the affair and Tom’s parentage forces the truth into the open and triggers the novel’s climactic unraveling. By leaving Bonhomie and cutting off contact with her son, she also embodies the theme of abandonment that threads through multiple generations.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Margaret is driven by a need for security and a fear of being seen as “lesser.” This is evident when she hides her orphanage past from Felix, believing that the facts of her upbringing would make him view her as desperate. She presents herself as a confident, well-dressed woman, but her actions reveal deep insecurity: she works diligently to “ferry the customer smoothly through the buying process” while maintaining an opaque exterior that no one notices. Her short temper with her son Tom and her habit of clapping while speaking suggest a controlled impatience, yet she also shows resilience — cycling through multiple jobs in Columbus after leaving Felix, promptly quitting whenever a boss made unwanted advances.

Her greatest motivation is to avoid ever being trapped or dependent again. When she accepts Felix’s proposal despite not loving him, she does so because she trusts him — not passion. Later, when she feels trapped by motherhood and a failing marriage, she chooses to run rather than stay and fight. This decision, while hurtful, is consistent with her lifelong pattern of leaving difficult situations behind, a pattern rooted in her experience as a foster child who cycled through four failed placements.

Chronological Arc

Margaret’s story begins in October 1918, when an eight-month-old red-haired girl is left in a basket at Open Arms. Raised by Lydia Verts, she is nicknamed “Firefly” and endures multiple failed foster placements, including an abusive year with the Selby family. At seventeen, after a birthday trip to Columbus, she dreams of a larger life. Lydia reluctantly sends her off with a room and a job lead.

In Columbus, Margaret is coerced into sex by Mr. Higgs, the cafeteria manager, before being hired. She uses her first paycheck to buy a new wardrobe, transforming how she is treated. She dates several men, then meets Felix Salt through a coworker. He is proper, stable, and proposes. She accepts, hiding her orphanage background.

The marriage is strained from the start — Felix has sexual difficulties and is hiding his own homosexuality. Margaret quits her job, takes art and dance classes, and becomes a junior executive’s wife. When Felix is transferred to Bonhomie in 1939, she resists but goes. There, she feels isolated among baby‑centric neighbors.

During World War II, while Felix serves in the Navy, Margaret begins an affair with Cal Jenkins, a married man she met on VE Day. The affair fills her need for desire and adventure. When Felix goes missing in action after a torpedo strike, she panics, but he survives. She ends the affair face-to-face.

After the war, Margaret becomes pregnant — possibly by Cal. She gives birth to Tom in April 1946. Breastfeeding fails; she switches to formula. Felix’s parents visit critically. Months later, she encounters Cal at a garden shop and lies that she conceived right after Felix’s return, closing the door on the affair.

In the 1950s, Margaret struggles with her difficult son Tom. After a fight over a dead goldfish, she notices two swirls in his hair — confirming her suspicion that Tom is Cal’s son, not Felix’s. Felix is fired from his job, and their marriage fractures. Margaret discovers a love note in Felix’s jacket, leading to a confrontation where Felix reveals his homosexuality and his love for Augie. Margaret then confesses her affair with Cal and that Tom is Cal’s son. The couple separates.

Margaret drives away from Bonhomie, witnessed by Tom. She moves to Columbus, lives alone in a furnished apartment, and works menial retail jobs. She divorces Felix on grounds of abandonment, sends Tom only holiday cards, and avoids any meaningful contact. She forms a quiet friendship with shoe store owner Lars Delmonico, but his new wife eventually has her fired. The chapter ends with Margaret lying awake, haunted by the parallel between her abandonment of Tom and her own mother’s abandonment.

Over the next two decades, Margaret remains in Columbus, isolated. She does not attend Skip’s funeral or reach out to Tom until after Felix’s death in 1976. She arrives after the funeral, apologizes to Tom, and reveals she was abandoned as a baby. They share a brief embrace before Tom returns to the wake. Her story closes with that tentative, incomplete reunion.

Relationships

Lydia Verts: The orphanage administrator who loves Margaret and nicknames her “Firefly.” Lydia supports her departure to Columbus but later dies, leaving Margaret with no one to return to. Margaret’s final call to the orphanage reveals Lydia has died — a loss that reinforces her aloneness.

Felix Salt: Margaret’s husband, a closeted gay man struggling with war trauma. Their marriage is a pact of mutual concealment: she hides her past, he hides his sexuality. They develop a functional but sexless partnership after their wedding-night failure. When both secrets erupt, they divorce. Yet Felix honors the checks she took and later helps her financially.

Cal Jenkins: Margaret’s lover. Their affair is “happy, sexy, fun — and ephemeral.” She ends it when Felix returns, and later lies to Cal about Tom’s parentage. Cal’s eventual confession to his wife Becky, prompted by Margaret’s letter, leads to the revelation of the paternity secret. They have no further contact until Tom learns the truth decades later.

Tom Salt: Margaret’s son, whose paternity is ambiguous until she notices the swirls in his hair. She struggles with his difficult behavior and eventually abandons him. She sends cards on holidays but cannot face his questions. At the end, she apologizes and reveals her own abandonment, but the wound remains.

Becky Jenkins: Cal’s wife, a spiritualist. Margaret never directly interacts with Becky in the narrative, but her affair and letter have lasting consequences for Becky’s marriage and her eventual forgiveness of Cal.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Hiding her orphanage past from Felix: This decision prevents genuine intimacy from the start and leads to a marriage built on omissions. When the truth eventually emerges (though Felix never learns all details), it deepens their estrangement.
Beginning the affair with Cal: Satisfies her need for desire but creates a tangled web of lies. The pregnancy that may result from the affair ties the families together for generations, and the paternity secret is not fully revealed until Tom is an adult.
Ending the affair when Felix returns: Shows her capacity for self-control and an attempt to preserve her marriage, but also represents a return to emotional emptiness. She later regrets not having more contact with Cal.
Leaving Bonhomie and abandoning Tom: This is the most consequential and morally ambiguous decision. It spares her from daily reminders of failure but leaves Tom with deep feelings of rejection. The novel shows her lifelong guilt: she lies awake haunted by the parallel with her own mother.
Avoiding contact with Tom for decades: She is terrified of his questions and of facing her own inadequacy as a mother. This avoidance compounds the hurt and prevents reconciliation until after Felix’s death.

Theme/Symbol Connections

Margaret’s story embodies several of the novel’s central themes:

Secrecy and Family Lies: Her entire adult life is built on secrets — her orphanage past, her affair, the paternity of Tom. The revelation of these secrets leads to the collapse of both her marriage and Cal’s.
War Trauma and Survival Guilt: Though she does not serve in the war, Margaret lives with the trauma of Felix’s near-death and the guilt of her affair. She also experiences the postwar isolation of a veteran’s wife who cannot connect with her changed husband.
Mediumship and Grief: While Margaret is not a medium, her story parallels Becky’s in that both women grapple with invisible losses. Margaret cannot “contact” her own past or her son; she seals herself off emotionally, a kind of living séance of grief.
Marital Estrangement and Hidden Identities: Margaret and Felix are strangers in the same house, each playing a role. Their marriage is an arrangement that hides their true selves, leading to parallel loneliness.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Margaret’s final apology to Tom offers a partial reconciliation, but the novel does not fully heal the rift. Her story suggests that forgiveness requires facing one’s own worst actions, something she only begins to do in her final scene.

The symbol of the buckeye tree, which grows in the Jenkins’ yard, is not directly connected to Margaret, but the novel’s title and the tree’s associations with resilience and rootedness contrast with her rootless life. She never finds a permanent home.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Margaret hide her orphanage background from Felix?
She fears that if he knows she was “born unwanted and had slunk away from an orphanage,” he would see her as lesser or desperate. She wants to be viewed as a woman of worth, not a charity case. This secrecy prevents genuine intimacy from the start.

2. How does Margaret discover that Tom is Cal’s son, not Felix’s?
After a fight over a dead goldfish, Margaret comforts Tom and notices two swirls in his hair. This physical mark confirms her suspicion, which had lingered since the pregnancy. The novel states that this moment “confirmed her suspicion that Tom is Augie’s son, not Felix’s” — but note: the text uses “Augie’s” as a stand-in? Actually, the evidence shows that Margaret “notices two swirls in his hair, confirming her suspicion that Tom is Augie’s son, not Felix’s” (chapter 14 outline). This seems to be an error in the outline; Augie is Felix’s lover, not Margaret’s. The implied meaning is that Tom’s biological father is Cal, but the outline word suggests Augie. For the answer, we follow the explicit outline: Margaret believes Tom is Augie’s son — which is impossible biologically, so this is likely a misinterpretation in the outline. Instead, from evidence: she notices the swirls and confirms the affair’s result. Interpret: the swirls trigger her certainty that the affair produced Tom.

3. What finally pushes Margaret to leave her family?
The immediate trigger is finding a love note in Felix’s jacket, which leads to a confrontation where Felix confesses his homosexuality and his love for Augie. Margaret then confesses her own affair and Tom’s paternity. The mutual exposure makes continuing the marriage impossible. She packs her belongings and drives away.

4. Why does Margaret avoid contacting Tom for so many years?
She is terrified of his questions — especially “when — or if — she was coming home.” The more time passes without calling or writing, the harder it becomes to explain her absence. She keeps his photograph in a closed hinged frame in her nightstand, a symbol of her inability to face him.

5. In what way does the novel connect Margaret’s abandonment of Tom to her own mother’s abandonment of her?
In the final chapter focused on Margaret, she lies awake haunted by the parallel: “how her mother had brought herself to leave her child in a basket … the rest of it. The getting-by part. The moving on with your life, having abandoned your child part.” She recognizes that she has replicated her mother’s act, and the novel leaves her in that unresolved guilt.