Adam in Rock Paper Scissors: A Character Analysis

Adam in Rock Paper Scissors: A Character Analysis Overview of Adam's Character Adam is a screenwriter in his early forties who lives with prosopagnosia, a neurological condition that prevents him from recognizing faces, including his own. The novel opens in February 2020 with Adam and his wife Amelia driving through a snowstorm to a remote Scottish chapel for a weekend intended to save their marriage. From the outset, Adam is presented as a man shaped by two defining forces: his face blindness and the unresolved trauma of his mother's death when he was thirteen. He grew up on a council estate in South London, left school at sixteen to work at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, and eventually built a successful career adapting other people's novels for film. His own screenplay, Rock Paper Scissors, has never been produced. Adam's narrative voice is marked by a sense of emotional exhaustion and a growing conviction that his marriage is beyond repair. He is a character who has learned to charm people professionally while feeling increasingly alienated from his personal life. His face blindness makes him reliant on other cues—voice, smell, touch—but it also feeds his distrust of others, as he cannot verify who people are by looking at them. The novel reveals that Adam is not merely a passive victim of his circumstances; he is actively planning to end his marriage, and he carries secrets of his own that complicate the reader's sympathy for him. ## Adam's Role in the Plot Adam serves as one of the novel's two primary points of view, alternating chapters with his wife Amelia. His perspective is essential to the suspense structure of Rock Paper Scissors, because the reader learns early on that he is hiding things from Amelia—most notably, a phone he has secretly kept after watching her remove his original phone from the car. His chapters reveal his suspicions about Amelia's behavior: he notes that she visited a financial advisor, took out life insurance on him, and pressured him to sign paperwork. These observations lead him to conclude that she is planning something, though he does not know what. Adam's role in the plot is also defined by his buried guilt. The novel gradually reveals that his mother's death was not the random hit-and-run accident he has long presented it as. In his own words, he was the teenage boy behind the wheel of the stolen car that killed her. His face blindness meant he could not identify the girl who had been with him that night, and he has carried the guilt of his mother's death for twenty-five years. This secret is the emotional core of his character, and it connects directly to the novel's central twist: the girl from that night was Amelia, and the woman he married is the same person who was in the car when his mother died. ## Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions Adam's motivations are revealed gradually through his actions and internal monologue. He is driven by a desire to escape—from his marriage, from his past, and from the reality of his life. This is evident in his career choices: he describes writing as his favorite drug, an escape from reality, and he admits that he did not even read the novel he was asked to adapt last year, deciding instead that the story would belong to him. His work is a form of control in a life where he feels powerless. His face blindness compounds this sense of powerlessness. He describes looking at faces as features that swirl like a Van Gogh painting, and he admits that he struggles to trust people, including his wife. This trait is shown through his behavior at social events, where he relies on others to whisper the names of approaching guests, and through his professional life, where he has learned to charm people despite not being able to recognize them. Adam's actions also reveal a man who is emotionally closed off. He reflects that he wants to cry but cannot, because it would not fit with who his wife thinks he is. He is a character who has learned to perform the role of a husband and a professional while feeling increasingly disconnected from both. His decision to retrieve the paper crane from the fire after Amelia throws it in is a turning point: it solidifies his resolve to end the marriage, and he begins counting down the hours until it is over. ## Chronological Arc of Adam's Character Adam's arc spans from his childhood to the novel's present-day events, with his past revealed through his own recollections and through Amelia's letters. As a thirteen-year-old boy, he lived on the thirteenth floor of a council estate with his mother, a nurse who worked double shifts. He idolizes her memory, but the novel complicates this idealization: his mother wore a red kimono and matching lipstick whenever male visitors came to stay, and Adam, listening through the thin walls, resented these visits. On the night of her death, he stormed out after one of her visitors arrived, met a girl in the park, and ended up driving a stolen car with her. He took a corner too fast, and the car mounted the pavement, killing his mother. He was found leaning over her body, covered in her blood, and everyone presumed he had been walking the dog with her. In his twenties, Adam sold the rights to his first screenplay, Rock Paper Scissors, which never made it beyond development but got him an agent. He built a career adapting novels, including three by Henry Winter, whom he came to see as a surrogate father figure. He married Amelia, and the early years of their marriage were happy, but the relationship deteriorated over time. The novel's present-day events take place over a single weekend in February 2020, during which Adam's suspicions about Amelia grow, his nightmares return, and he makes the decision to end his marriage. The novel's final chapters reveal the full extent of his deception: he was the one who cut the power while Amelia was trapped in the crypt, and he has been planning to leave her. In the end, he is reunited with Robin, the woman who was the girl from the park, and he reflects that his nightmares have stopped since returning from Scotland. ## Key Relationships Adam's relationships are defined by his face blindness and his inability to fully trust others. His relationship with his mother is the most formative. He idolizes her memory, but the novel reveals that she was not the saint he remembers. He compares every other woman in his life to her, and Amelia notes that the pedestal he put his mother on is broken. His guilt over her death is the driving force of his character, and he still blames himself for not walking the dog that night. His relationship with Amelia is the central relationship of the novel. They married over ten years ago, and the early years were happy, but the marriage has deteriorated into mutual suspicion and resentment. Adam believes Amelia is planning something, and he is right—she has her own secrets. He admits that he cheated on her, but he also reveals that she cheated on him, and he insists that any love he had for her is gone. Their relationship is characterized by a lack of honesty on both sides, and the weekend at Blackwater Chapel is their last attempt to fix things. His relationship with Robin is the novel's twist. Robin is the woman who lives in the cottage near Blackwater Chapel, and she is revealed to be the girl from the park on the night of Adam's mother's death. She is also the woman in the wedding photo that Amelia shows Adam, and she is the author of the annual letters that appear throughout the novel. Adam's relationship with Henry Winter is also significant. Winter was a successful author whose novels Adam adapted, and Adam saw him as a father figure. The novel reveals that Winter was actually Robin's father, and that Robin wrote the letters and the screenplay Rock Paper Scissors as part of her plan to reunite with Adam. ## Key Decisions and Consequences Adam's key decisions drive the novel's plot and reveal his character. His decision to hide his phone from Amelia is one of the first signs that he is not being honest with her. He watches her remove it from the car and hide it in the house, but he does not confront her; instead, he keeps a second phone hidden. This decision allows him to observe her behavior and fuels his suspicions. His decision to end the marriage is solidified when Amelia throws his paper crane into the fire. He retrieves it, singed but intact, and resolves to leave her. This decision sets up the novel's climax, in which he and Amelia are trapped at the chapel with Robin. His decision to cut the power while Amelia is in the crypt is a darker moment. He admits that he flicked the switch and dropped the trapdoor, leaving her trapped in the dark. This action shows a capacity for cruelty that complicates the reader's view of him. His most significant decision, however, was made when he was thirteen: he got into a stolen car with a girl he did not know, and his actions led to his mother's death. This decision has haunted him for twenty-five years, and it is the root of his guilt and his inability to trust others. ## Theme and Symbol Connections Adam's character connects to several of the novel's central themes. His face blindness is a literal manifestation of the unreliability of perception. He cannot trust what he sees, and this shapes his entire worldview. The novel explores how perception can be manipulated, and Adam's condition makes him particularly vulnerable to deception. His buried guilt over his mother's death connects to the theme of the corrosive power of secrets and lies. He has kept the truth of that night hidden for decades, and it has poisoned his relationships. His childhood trauma and his relationship with his mother connect to the theme of the inescapable influence of childhood trauma and parental legacy. Adam's mother's death and his complicated feelings about her shape his adult life. The paper crane is a symbol of his past and his connection to Robin. He has carried it for years, and it represents the story he has been telling himself about his life. The novel also explores the theme of storytelling as a means of control and self-reinvention. Adam is a screenwriter who adapts other people's stories, but he has been unable to tell his own. Robin, it is revealed, has been writing letters and stories to control the narrative of their lives. Finally, the theme of the illusion of control and the role of chance is central to Adam's character. He believes he is planning his escape, but the novel reveals that he has been manipulated by Robin all along. ## Questions and Answers Why does Adam hide his phone from Amelia? Adam hides his phone because he suspects Amelia is planning something. He watched her remove his original phone from the car glovebox and hide it in the house, and he knows she lied about it during the journey. He keeps a second phone hidden so he can observe her behavior and gather information. What is the significance of the paper crane? The paper crane is a symbol of Adam's past and his connection to Robin. He has carried it for years, and it represents the story he has been telling himself about his life. When Amelia throws it into the fire, he retrieves it, singed but intact, and this incident solidifies his resolve to end the marriage. How does Adam's face blindness affect his relationships? Adam's face blindness makes it difficult for him to trust others, because he cannot verify who people are by looking at them. He relies on other cues, such as voice and smell, but he still feels alienated from the people around him. It also affects his marriage, as he cannot recognize his own wife's face. What is the truth about Adam's mother's death? Adam's mother was killed when he was thirteen. He was driving a stolen car with a girl he had met in the park, and he took a corner too fast, causing the car to mount the pavement and hit his mother. He was found leaning over her body, and everyone presumed he had been walking the dog with her. He has carried the guilt of this for twenty-five years. Who is Robin, and what is her connection to Adam? Robin is the woman who lives in the cottage near Blackwater Chapel. She is revealed to be the girl from the park on the night of Adam's mother's death, and she is also the woman in the wedding photo that Amelia shows Adam. She has been writing annual letters to Adam and is the author of the screenplay Rock Paper Scissors. She is also the daughter of Henry Winter, the author whose novels Adam adapted. Her plan is to reunite with Adam, and she is the one who invited him and Amelia to the chapel. For more on the novel's themes, see the analysis of the unreliability of perception and the fragility of identity, the corrosive power of secrets and lies in intimate relationships, and the act of storytelling as a means of control, revenge, and self-reinvention. For the novel's resolution, see the ending explained page, or browse the questions and answers section.