Anything Is Possible

Amgash, Illinois is the primary setting of Anything Is Possible. Characters who live away from Amgash are still connected to the small, rural town. Amgash is a setting and a symbol. It symbolizes a web that keeps characters stuck as well as a home that keeps people safe and supported. For some characters, like Patty, Amgash can feel like a spider’s web that has captured them. Because Amgash is a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business, and few characters leave. Familial duties or comfort within the web keeps some characters irrevocably tied to Amgash. Characters who leave, like Lucy Barton, find their way back, whether emotionally or physically. Thus, Amgash symbolizes a space that is frozen in time and keeps characters fixated on their pasts. However, Amgash also symbolizes a safe space. For Tommy, Amgash is a community of people who look out for one another, an Eden in which God guides Tommy to appreciate his family and, by extension, his neighbors.

In Anything Is Possible, family represents a support system and a source of resentment. Family either binds or divides characters. In conquering their relationships with their families and their roles within families, characters in this novel transcend their past or hold themselves back from reaching their full potential.