Character Analysis: 'You Re Kate'

Joan Theresa is the woman who asks Kate to investigate Janet's case. She lives in a women's commune and is not affiliated to any university. Despite not knowing Kate, she greets her with “'You're Kate'” (Cross 8). By using her first name, she offers Kate a relationship based on equality and does not acknowledge her title. In Joan's case, it is most likely that this title is irrelevant for their relationship (cf. Danziger 43), even though Kate's affiliation to a university plays an important role in the solving of the case. Still, Kate agrees to Joan's view of their relationship: “'Kate ordered capuccino [sic] and some sort of sandwich, and asked for Joan Theresa. 'Tell her it's Kate,' Kate said, falling back on the new first name culture” (Cross

An example for this is her reaction to Kate's assumption that she wants to attends Harvard: “'This shit house! Sorry. You took me by surprise ( … )'” (Cross 10). She immediately apologises for the vulgar expression of her opinion and thus demonstrates that she is now trying to adjust her language to the academic environment in order to gain Kate's trust. Because Kate is not part of her peer group, slang cannot establish a familiarity between them. But despite her attempts, Joan Theresa still uses colloquialisms throughout their conversation, such as “she got sloshed” (Cross 17), or “stewed to the gills, zonked out” (Cross 16), which demonstrates how difficult it is for her to adjust her language.
Their relationship is on the verge of being metacomplementary (cf. Watzlawick et. al 69), which becomes clear when Kate asks: “'Why should I let you use me?' 'A good question,' Joan said” (Cross 87). Kate is aware that Joan wants to use her without any obvious reward and wonders whether to let her do so or not. If she decides to let Joan be in charge of her actions, that is, if Kate decides to testify for Luellen, Joan is seemingly the leader in the relationship. But since it is ultimately Kate's decision whether or not to do so, concerning this matter, the relationship can rather be called

Rosamund somebody, and Helen somebody, I think, and...' 'Rosamund Tuve, Helen White, Marjorie Hope Nicolson.' 'Oh, wow,' Judith said. (Cross 121)

While Judith signals that she is not certain about her message by using the modifier 'I think' (cf. Mehrabian 38), Kate can help her out effortlessly, much to Judith's surprise, which is conveyed by her exclamation of 'Oh, wow'. As professors, Kate and Janet do not share the same knowledge about the same topics with Judith, which is emphasised here.
Furthermore, Leighton's friends use abbreviations, which is a sign of colloquial speech (Danziger 44): “'What was [Janet's] manner like?' Kate asked. 'Professional. Not at all personal, as some of the younger profs are (…)'” (Cross 98). Instead of speaking of 'professors', he uses 'profs', which represents not only the register used by students, but also that he feels comfortable enough to use familar speech around Kate even though she herself is a 'prof'. Leighton's friend Judith uses vulgar words, such as “crap” (Cross 99), and