My Heart Is a Chainsaw

Letha Mondragon is one of Jade’s classmates and becomes her friend over the course of the novel. Letha Mondragon is a new student in Proofrock and one of the only Black people in the community. Her father, Theo Mondragon, is one of the wealthy Founders who are moving into Terra Nova. Letha’s mother is dead, and her father has remarried a much younger woman named Tiara. Initially, Letha appears to be a flat and stereotypical character, embodying the ideal of the final girl. She is beautiful, “virtuous,” and athletic. Jade’s initial description of her emphasizes that Letha is both traditionally feminine and physically powerful: “[I]f this girl had an aura, it would be ‘princess,’ but the cut of her eyes is closer to ‘warrior,’ the kind of face that’s just made to come alive when a spatter of blood mists across those perky, flawless, no-acne cheeks” (41). Jade idealizes Letha, imagining her as a perfect hero who can save the town. However, Jade also wants to protect Letha, particularly once she realizes that Letha’s father Theo might be involved with the murders occurring in Proofrock. The text often plays with the word “dragon” in Letha’s last name, suggesting a powerful and dangerous monster. Initially, Jade compares Theo in his boat to a “dragon, using its mighty tail to cut through the water” (104). However, Jade eventually notices the dragon-like qualities that Letha possesses as well, particularly when she demonstrates her strength. After Letha rescues Jade from the pile of elk, she describes her as “an angel in a halo of blazing light, her hair wet with gore, face red and black with chunks, chest heaving, fingers curling open and shit like the talons they are. Letha fucking Mondragon, reborn” (336). Letha looks angelic, but her fingers look like talons or claws. Just as she has the qualities of both princess and warrior, she is also both an angel and a “monstrous” dragon.

As Jade gets to know Letha more, she begins to see evidence that Letha is a more complex character than she appears. While Letha is kind and compassionate toward Jade and her other classmates, she is hiding her hatred of Terra Nova. When Jade sees Letha in the construction site for the new houses, she describes how Letha is “cupping a Yankee candle at her sternum, the shadows on her face upside down, the wrongness of it sending a jolt up Jade’s spine that she has to consciously not let show” (286). The strange, reversed light of the candle hints that Letha might not be as morally uncomplicated as Jade assumes. Although Letha claims she was only walking around the construction site to search for Jade, worried that she would have no place to stay, she later reveals her true motivation, confessing, “I was going to burn it all down” (325). Letha believes that it is wrong for the Founders to have built these houses in a national forest and disrupted the small town of Proofrock, and so she is tempted to destroy the development.

At the end of the story, Letha does not turn out to be the final girl that Jade imagined, but she does remain a true friend to Jade. Letha does not defeat Stacey Graves, but she is able to survive having her jaw broken and saves Jade from drowning in the lake. Jade and Letha’s friendship continues to play an important role in the sequel, Don’t Fear the Reaper.

Sheriff Hardy is a mentor and occasionally an antagonist to Jade. He is Proofrock’s sheriff, and he saves Jade during her suicide attempt at the beginning of the novel. Jade suggests that he is competent and good at this job, although she laments this fact because “in slashers, the local cops are always useless. It’s a hard and fast rule of the genre. Sheriff Hardy not sticking to that is just one more nail in the coffin of Jade’s dreams” (36). Hardy is often an obstacle to Jade, banning her from the July Fourth celebration and trying to prevent her from investigating the death of Deacon Samuels.

Hardy and Jade both have tragedy in their pasts that helps to forge an emotional connection between them. Sheriff Hardy had a daughter named Melanie who drowned in the lake due to the negligence of her boyfriend, Clate Rodgers. While he does not discuss his grief with Jade, his drive to protect local children from drowning suggests to her that this is how he copes with his daughter’s loss. Jade notices that “Hardy always finishes his day out with one last cigarette on the bench by the lake, the one dedicated to his daughter” (110). He drives an airboat named after his daughter and uses it to rescue people on the lake. Jade also suspects that Hardy takes revenge upon Clate Rodgers by not preventing a boating accident. After Clate is pulled into the motor of the Mondragon’s Umiak boat, Jade notices:

Clate Rodger’s frothy blood lapping up against Hardy’s hull, some of the chunks adhering to the fiberglass. Not quite as high as the little airboat’s name, Melanie, but when Hardy passes by, the water laps up a few inches, baptizes those eight letters in what’s left of the boy who was with her the day she drowned (221).

Hardy’s desire for revenge against Clate Rodgers parallels Jade’s anger at her father, causing Jade to empathize with Hardy.

Sheriff Hardy is often strict with Jade, requiring her to perform community service and imprisoning her after she throws a machete at Letha, but he acts more like a father figure than a law enforcement officer toward her. Jade admits that he often helps her with her father, threatening to punish him if he ever hurts her. He acts as her protector, taking on the role that both of her parents have failed to fill. When Jade is attacked by Stacey Graves, Hardy tries to shoot the ghost despite his injuries. Jade realizes that “he’s dying, is still trying to save her, because he’s not going to let Jade die in these waters like his daughter did. It’s what dads do. It’s what they’re supposed to do” (374). Hardy acts as a surrogate father to Jade, caring deeply for her despite his unemotional demeanor.