Well, having read this point of discussion, I think it's about time I'd read TPAOL.

You don't know why you are important?

Well, just wait to see what people have to say!

Anna...I quite agree...seeing as Anna is my first name!

Well, who can disagree with Meeks...Anna is the axis...everybody and his brother bumps....or was that humps...off of Anna. Oh, naughty....I digress

Faces both ways?.....OK, not going to get in the gutter on this one...now where was I...yeah, Anna's got quite the split personality going...one minute you are feeling sorry for her and the next minute you want to shake her sorry little hmmm.

Well, Anna means 'hole' in some languages. She faces both ways...could that mean inside and out?
A fine start to the day. We're not even off topic yet!

A character who looks both ways... witha palindromic name! Very clever!

Maybe the two ways are firstly home and family and secondly the wider world, what she can achieve and record with her photography.

OK, in all seriousness. You may be right Endora.
Another thought is that 'motivating' factor.
She wants to settle down, but wants to get out of town.
Could she be full of dichotomies?

Well, I agree: Anna is one hot little filly - and in NO mood for geldings!! (I'll never understand why she followed one to Yazyk) I like what you say, Endora and Depputante, about her wanting her life to be 'normal' - hearth and home - and at the same time wanting to be/do something more. The 'more', IMO, would've been to stay in the city and record what was happening there instead of wasting her time and talent by leaving, and dragging her child along with her. What for? To prove a point about how gilted she felt? To hold on to her romantic notions about love? She may represent contradictory, two-faced behavior to the author (and who can argue with the author) but I see her as basically confused. To me she seems lost in a sea of sexual emotions she can't get a grip on. (ahem) She seems conflicted about motherhood. She can't make up her mind about much of anything - until the end, when she at least recognizes the importance of her son's life (for the first time?). Even then she's ambivalent about going with Mutz and opts for going off with a stranger to a future that is unknown. Anna appears to me to be someone who wants to be self-reliant and independent and adventurous but doesn't really have the moxie to pull it off.

Anna as axis:
She interacts and motivates all the major characters in some way.

As a character that faces both ways:
She is both the betrayed and the betrayer. Balashov betrays her, she follows him and flaunts her lovers in his face. She loves Balashov and seeks revenge on him after his betrayal, love and hate.

Well, in 1919 , I suppose women weren't really...much without their man. .

That said, as a first angle, we've been saying we like Meek's acuracy of the era, but now we don't like that same accuracy, because she's 'passive' when compared to our modern day terms. I suppose, for 1919, she was way out there. She had her career, and kept getting up everytime a man put her down. She stuck by her morals, keeping Balashov priority #1, and waited on the side. In this way, I suppose she's a strong woman.

Then, the other angle, she appears wishy-washy, perhaps not knowing which is the better of the two. The Husband, or another man, and she keeps sort of comparing them, with the husband coming out on top each time.

Somehow I found Mutz more pivotal - perhaps that's only because he was the most sympathetic figure to me.