Y.T.

Character Analysis

Skateboarding Star

If skateboarding were something you could get graded on, Y.T. would graduate at the top of her class, probably valedictorian. How do we know this? First, she's skilled enough to hitch a ride with Hiro while he's in Deliverator mode. And that's saying something, because "The Deliverator is a Type A driver with rabies" (1.24). Sounds like someone you don't want to share the road with, never mind hitch a ride from as you careen along on a skateboard.

But no, Y.T. is not only skilled enough to attach her magnetic harpoon to Hiro's car, she's also brave enough to do it. When Hiro tries to shake her by passing and then cutting off a car, she anticipates it, reeling in her cord. And then—the nerve—she slaps two stickers on Hiro's car (printed backward so he can read them from the inside) criticizing his driving. So let's add sassy to the list of qualities Y.T. possesses while we're at it.

Y.T. is as at home on a skateboard as a gazelle in the savannah. The streets of L.A. are her natural habitat, and she is aware of both the dangers and the beauty therein, observing to herself: "The landscape of the suburban night has much weird beauty if you just look" (4.1). It's a pretty neat philosophy for a teenager to have developed, right?

It helps that Y.T. has both the mental and physical gear to be such a rockin' skateboarder. Her Knight Vision goggles allow her to see in any light or dark conditions, her Liquid Knuckles let her punch out any attackers at close range, and her Kourier suit with its armorgel and strategically placed airbags saves her life when she has to leap out of Rife's helicopter. In other words, Y.T.'s particular method of being awesome requires gear—but when you're as prepared as she is, there's nothing you can't do.

We're not saying Y.T.'s cynical (okay, we kind of are), but her time on the streets has definitely made her wary of, well, pretty much everything. The only person to one hundred percent charm Y.T. is Uncle Enzo, and during their first face-to-face meeting, she "can't remember when she's been so involved in a conversation" (21.42). Uncle Enzo's engaging way of talking to Y.T.—without talking down to her—makes her feel valued and included.

Of course, he's also manipulating her into becoming loyal to the Mafia… but that's how the world works in Snow Crash. Everyone can be bought, even our anarchistic Y.T.

Not even Raven, who seems to exude Y.T.-seducing pheromones, has this effect on her. When they meet on the Raft, where Y.T. is slinging fish heads in the cafeteria, he offers to get her a better job. Her response:

"In this job, do I get to leave my clothes on?" (47.20)

Yes, Y.T. is world-wise, and also a bit world-weary, it seems. It makes sense since she lives in a society where women can wear dentata, which are anti-rape devices.

Secretly Sweet

Y.T. probably doesn't want this to get out, but she's actually a nice person. Heck, she doesn't even want her name getting out—Y.T. stands for Yours Truly, which is another way of referring to oneself in the first person, and also a warm way to sign off on a letter. But back to her niceness.

First she helps Hiro with his doomed pizza delivery, thereby saving him from the wrath of the Mafia. And when she first encounters a Rat Thing in Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, she realizes "The poor thing is burning itself alive" (12.84), so she drags it back to its cooling hutch so that it doesn't die, even though she risks coming into contact with its radiation-powered body. See? We told she's a softy inside.

Though Y.T.'s relationship with her mom seems a little distant (we get the impression, for instance, that her mom doesn't know how dangerous her Kourier job is), Y.T. genuinely cares about her mom. Hiro notices, for instance, that he "and Y.T. have eaten a lot of junk food together in different joints all over L.A.—doughnuts, burritos, pizza, sushi, you name it—and all Y.T. ever talks about is her mother and the terrible job that she has with the Feds" (63.21). Don't know about you guys, but when there are burritos on the table, well, we talk about burritos.

Want more proof that Y.T. loves her mom? When Hiro gets around to telling Y.T. that Snow Crash in its information-virus form only destroys the brains of programmers, Y.T. rushes home and destroys her mom's computer. Nothing says love like the destruction of company property.

Y.T.'s not cut out to be a super-villain or anything, but she's also not exactly the first person to come to mind when we think, "Who's going to help save the world?" But she's actually the perfect candidate to at least provide a valuable assist, like when she nabs the nam-shub of Enki from Rife's chopper and passes it on to Hiro. Y.T. has the street smarts to navigate many an unpredictable situation, and she also has the empathy to not want bad stuff to happen to people. In a world full of thugs, drones, and hoboes, someone like Y.T. can make a difference.

She's Sexy and She Knows It

For a fifteen-year-old girl, Y.T. is pretty dang confident about her sexuality. She thinks about sex and even (gasp) has it on occasion. Her boyfriend, Roadkill, while kind of clueless at times, benefits from Y.T.'s self-assuredness. And while she and Hiro never get it on, she does briefly consider the possibility:

She is thinking, oddly enough, about what it would be like to climb into the back of the car with Hiro Protagonist for a while. Pretty nice, probably. But […] anyone decent enough to come help her escape from The Clink probably has some kind of scruples about boffing fifteen-year-old girls. (12.29)

However, with youth comes inexperience, so while Y.T. feels pretty in charge of her sexuality, she doesn't always make the wisest choices. Exhibit A: banging Raven. When Y.T. first sees Raven on the Raft and she sees his forehead tattoo, she thinks: "kind of scary. Sexy, too" (47.3). Even after she finds out who he actually is, "she can't get around the fact that he's making her uncomfortably horny" (50.20). In other words, she repeatedly recognizes Raven as bad news, but, well, she just can't seem to help herself when it comes to doing the nasty with him.

The problem with her and Raven getting it on is not that he's a remorseless killer (well, that's a problem, but not the problem). The problem is that Y.T. in the heat of the moment forgot to remove her dentata, a tiny insertable personal safety device that injects anyone having intercourse with her with a drug cocktail that'll knock 'em out. Y.T. gets props for having insurance against rape, but if she doesn't remember to remove the thing before pouncing on someone she actually wants to have sex with, that's no good either.

Luckily for Y.T., Raven doesn't seek the revenge she worries he might, and instead speeds off in a stolen pizza delivery car. This leaves Y.T. free to head home with her mom as the book ends, which seems about right for a fifteen-year-old.