An American Marriage is told by three narrators who speak directly to us in discrete chapters: Celestial, Roy, and Dre each by turn contribute to the emerging narrative of their complicated triangle. Without authorial intrusion to direct our analyses of these characters, these characters define themselves much like characters in a play: by what they say and how they say it.

We want Celestial Davenport to be uncomplicated: we want her to be the loving and supportive wife of a husband victimized by the racist justice system, an innocent man wrongfully jailed for a brutal crime she believes in her heart he did not commit. Celestial refuses to be simply anything.

Understanding the contradictory character of Celestial Davenport Hamilton begins with understanding the long-term effects of what she is most reluctant to talk about: her two abortions. Those experiences, which she seldom explores, leave her in a disturbing complex of guilt and relief, isolation and anxiety. She cannot let either of the men in her life too close. Crafting dolls is her way of handling the trauma of her decision to end both of her pregnancies. The legacy of her two abortions leaves her both empowered (after all, she made the decision in both cases) and yet helpless, vulnerable, and unable to trust her heart entirely to any man.