Lina is unique among the other characters in at least two key ways. For one, we know she has already survived a plague of European origin that decimated her Native community as a child, leading to her adoption. Her formative experience foreshadows the illness that will kill the Vaarks, their nonnative immune systems unable to withstand the pathogens that their people themselves brought to the New World, in a cruel twist of ironic fate. Morrison presents Lina's vitality as invincible just as her will is indomitable, suggesting that she will not succumb easily to death by foreign invasion.

Lina's experience also foretells the continued depredations of the Native Americans that will eventually organize into federally sanctioned genocide and forced relocation. Another way that Lina's character is unique is her self-possession and awareness that have informed her life with the Vaarks. Her distinctive aura of empowerment is reflected in White indentured servant Scully's admiration of her "sense of her own self-worth."

While Lina is not technically a slave, she has neither legal rights as a colonial citizen nor Native community to belong to and identify with. On the other hand, she was the first servant to join the Vaark farm, and her knowledge of effective Native American farming techniques was as essential to the farm's prosperity as her toil. She understands her role in Jacob's success, and more important than the appreciation and status this gives her in the household is the way this awareness defines her sense of purpose and identity that cannot be taken away.