Characters Call Me Athena Colby Cedar Smith

Mary's Father in Call Me Athena: A Character Analysis of the Greek Immigrant

Overview

Mary’s father is a Greek immigrant who carries the weight of his homeland’s traditions into his new life in 1930s Detroit. Though the novel Call Me Athena presents only a few explicit scenes involving him, his presence permeates Mary’s journey toward independence. Based on the author’s note, he is inspired by the real-life Giorgos Skandalaris, who traveled to the United States aboard the RMS Olympic with his wife Jeanne. In the story, Mary’s father holds rigid expectations for his daughter to be a “good Greek girl” — obedient, marriageable, and faithful to Old World customs. This analysis draws on the novel’s thematic threads — grief, identity, immigrant experience, and gender roles — to interpret a character who is both a source of conflict and a symbol of heritage.

Note: Because the published evidence contains only the opening poem (chapter 1), the author’s note, and a promotional statement, most of the specific plot details about Mary’s father come from the book’s premise and thematic cues. Where interpretation is offered, it is clearly labeled.

Plot Role

Mary’s father functions as the primary obstacle to her self-determination. He represents the patriarchal authority of Greek culture, demanding that Mary conform to a life of domestic duty and arranged marriage. At the same time, he is a complex figure — an immigrant who sacrificed stability to build a future for his family in America. His role is not purely antagonistic; he also embodies the protective love of a parent who fears losing his daughter to a world he does not fully trust. The tension between his love and his control drives much of the novel’s central conflict.

From the author’s note, we learn that Smith’s great-grandfather Giorgos was a real person whose journey was reconstructed from historical documents. This factual grounding suggests that Mary’s father, like Giorgos, likely faced poverty, language barriers, and the struggle to preserve Greek identity in a foreign land. His plot role, therefore, is also that of a tragic figure — a man caught between two worlds, unable to adapt as quickly as his children.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Although specific action sequences are not supplied in the evidence, we can infer Mary’s father’s motivations from the novel’s thematic landscape:

  • Preservation of Greek culture – His insistence that Mary speak Greek, cook traditional meals, and obey her elders stems from a deep fear that Americanization will erase his family’s identity. This is a common immigrant anxiety, and his strictness can be read as a desperate attempt to hold on to what he knows.
  • Economic survival – As an immigrant in Detroit during the Great Depression, he likely works exhausting, low-paying jobs (possibly at the Ford factory, as alluded to in the author’s note about Mary’s childhood). His focus on practicality and duty over Mary’s dreams reflects a survivalist mindset.
  • Protective love – His harsh demands may mask a genuine desire to shield Mary from the dangers he perceives in American society — danger to her reputation, her safety, and her soul. This trait is hinted at by the poem’s opening image of grief consuming everything; the father may be trying to control Mary’s life to prevent the kind of loss he has already experienced.

Interpretation: His character is not static. In the novel’s arc, his actions gradually reveal vulnerability, possibly through moments of silence, regret, or unexpected tenderness that challenge Mary’s view of him.

Chronological Arc

Without a full outline, the father’s chronological arc must be pieced together from likely story beats:

  • Early chapters – He is introduced as a domineering figure, setting rules and voicing displeasure when Mary defies them. The title “Listen Up!” (chapter 3) may signal a confrontational scene where he lays down the law.
  • Middle of the novel – As Mary forms relationships outside the Greek community and seeks education or work, his opposition intensifies. He may use guilt, emotional withdrawal, or physical threats to assert control.
  • Climax – A breaking point occurs — perhaps Mary’s decision to leave home or pursue a forbidden love. The father must choose between enforcing tradition and losing his daughter entirely.
  • Resolution – In the author’s note, Smith writes that her real grandmother Mary became a successful businesswoman. This suggests the fictional Mary ultimately achieves independence. The father’s arc may end with a quiet acceptance, a tragic estrangement, or a grudging reconciliation that leaves both love and pain intact.

Interpretation: The arc mirrors the novel’s central theme of identity — the father’s own identity must shift as his daughter’s does. He may never fully approve, but he may come to respect her strength, recognizing a reflection of his own immigrant courage.

Relationships

With Mary

This is the emotional core of the novel. Their relationship is a battle of wills — her hunger for freedom versus his demand for obedience. Yet beneath the conflict lies a mutual, often unspoken, love. Mary’s grief (introduced in the opening poem) may be connected to a loss involving her father — perhaps his death, illness, or the wound of estrangement. The poem’s image of a “useless bucket” suggests powerlessness; Mary may feel unable to save her father from his own rigidity or from the larger forces of time and change.

With Mary’s Mother

The author’s note mentions great-grandmother Jeanne (Jeanette Skandalaris). In the novel, her counterpart is likely a quieter, more domestic figure who mediates between father and daughter. The father’s relationship with his wife may reinforce traditional gender roles: he is the decision-maker, she the supporter. This dynamic affects Mary, who may see her mother’s submission as a fate she must avoid.

With the Greek Community

Mary’s father likely seeks validation from other Greek immigrants — his standing in Greektown depends on raising a proper daughter. This external pressure intensifies his actions. Community gossip and expectation magnify the stakes of Mary’s rebellion.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Because we lack direct evidence, the following are probable decisions based on the character’s known traits:

  • Decision to immigrate – The father’s choice to leave Greece shapes everything. Consequence: He gains economic opportunity but loses cultural grounding, creating the very anxiety that drives his strictness.
  • Decision to enforce an arranged marriage – If he pushes Mary to marry a man she does not love, the consequence is a fractured relationship. Mary may either comply with resentment or rebel, leading to estrangement.
  • Decision to relent (or not) – His final choice regarding Mary’s independence will define his legacy. If he supports her (even reluctantly), his character is redeemed; if he disowns her, the theme of grief is deepened.

Interpretation: The author’s note emphasizes that Smith’s grandmother Mary defied gender norms. This strongly suggests that in the novel, Mary’s father ultimately cannot stop her. His key decision may be how he handles that failure — with grace or with bitterness.

Theme/Symbol Connections

  • Grief and Loss – The opening poem depicts grief as a destructive brush fire. Mary’s father may be both a cause and a victim of this grief. The “useless bucket” could symbolize the inadequacy of his controlling methods to prevent change or loss.
  • Identity and Independence – He represents the Old World identity Mary must shed or redefine to become herself. His stubbornness highlights the pain of forging a new identity.
  • Immigrant Experience – He embodies the immigrant’s dual longing: for the homeland and for a better future. His character explores the cost of assimilation — the loss of language, customs, and familial harmony.
  • Legacy and Memory – As a character based on Smith’s real great-grandfather, Mary’s father is a vessel for family memory. The author’s note describes how stories survive Alzheimer’s and death. His character carries the weight of that legacy — both the pride and the pain.
  • Gender Roles and Expectations — His insistence on Mary being a “good Greek girl” directly ties to gender norms. He believes a woman’s value lies in her purity, her domestic skills, and her deference to men. This theme drives much of the plot.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Mary’s father hold such strict expectations for her? The father’s strictness stems from his immigrant background: he fears that American culture will corrupt Mary and erase the Greek identity he sacrificed everything to preserve. His authority is also a reflection of traditional Greek patriarchy, where a daughter’s behavior reflects on the family’s honor. While his methods are harsh, they are rooted in genuine, if misguided, love. (Note: This answer is interpretive; the novel may provide additional nuance.)

2. Is Mary’s father based on a real person? Yes, according to the author’s note, the character is inspired by the author’s great-grandfather Giorgos Skandalaris. However, Colby Cedar Smith states that “she changed the actual events quite a bit” and that the novel is a fictionalized narrative, not a strict biography.

3. How does Mary’s father contribute to the theme of grief? The opening poem establishes grief as a central force. Mary’s father, through his inflexibility and possible death or illness, becomes a source of her grief. His attempts to control her life could be read as a futile attempt to smother the “spark” of loss that he himself feels — loss of his homeland, his youth, or his dreams. The father-daughter conflict thus becomes another layer of the brush fire.

4. Does Mary’s father ever change his mind about her independence? Based on the author’s description of Mary (the author’s grandmother) becoming a successful businesswoman in the 1950s, it is likely that the fictional Mary eventually breaks free from his control. Whether he changes his mind is ambiguous; the novel may portray a grudging acceptance or a permanent rift. Readers looking for a definitive answer should analyze the ending closely. (See Ending Explained.)

5. What does Mary’s father symbolize in the story? He symbolizes the Old World tradition that both nourishes and confines the protagonist. He is a living bridge between Greece and America, embodying the immigrant’s resilience and resistance to change. Symbolically, he represents the “cinder” of grief — the small, persistent spark that can either be stoked into a fire or, if tended with understanding, be allowed to cool.

For further discussion, see the Questions and Answers page.