Blue in Self-Portrait with Nothing: Character Analysis

Overview of Blue in Self-Portrait with Nothing: Character Analysis of Blue's Role, Motivations, and Fate in the Novel by Aimee Pokwatka (2022) — Blue is one of the alternate Ula Frosts, a version of the reclusive painter from a parallel universe who crossed into this world through the mechanism of Ula's self-portraits. She is among the Ulas who returned to this universe after Ula's reported disappearance, and she becomes Pepper Rafferty's most trusted ally among the alternates. Blue is distinguished by her practicality, her emotional depth, and her willingness to break with the group's leadership when she recognizes that Ula Zero is not the real Ula. Her defining trait is her capacity for care. Where other Ulas keep their distance or nurse grievances, Blue actively protects Pepper, shares her grief, and works alongside her to find the real Ula. Her name echoes the novel's epigraph from Tomas Tranströmer's poem The Blue House, which speaks of sketches longing to become real things—an interpretive connection that frames Blue as a sketch made real, an alternate self who longs for the life she left behind. For more on how Blue fits into the novel's larger questions, see the main book page and the ending explained.