"At times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn't keeping my promise that I'd protect her--the promise I'd made to her when I held her on the way home from the hospital after she'd been born. I couldn't get her what she needed most--hot baths, a warm bed, steaming bowls of cream of wheat before school in the morning--but I tried to do the little things".
This is Jeanette talking all about how she is failing her sister. How she can't properly raise her, can't provide a stable home environment, and can't give her enough food. Jeannette is feeling almost depressed about what she has and hasn't done for her younger sister. But she shouldn't. It is not her job to worry that much. It is not her job to bring in money and pay the bills, or to put food on the table. She has just started seventh grade! Yes, she should care about Maureen, and she should help out her parents when raising the child. But half the time the parents don't even know where she is. Sometimes they feel like Maureen is not even a part of their family, because she is at her friends house. Eating a full meal. The parents, Rex and Rosemary Walls, are not responsible enough for caring for children. They just aren't really doing what is best for their kids. I feel very bad for the mom as well, she is married to her husband, a drunk. She is a weird person who doesn't exactly know right from wrong, but most of the problems start from the father. And how she has almost no control over any situation that goes down. The dad is spiraling out of control, leading the families faith in him less and less each day. On some days the parents go out for food and leave the kids starving. So now Jeannette is feeling worse and worse about herself because of the parents mistakes.
I also want to address how Jeannette puts this statement together. The way she forms it, adding a bunch more detail to the story. It even adds a lot of different feelings and emotions inside the writing. The sensation a reader gets when reading something. Reading between the lines and still getting what the author puts across is great! One way was that she used hyphens. She used them as a semicolen and for adding on details. The author put a lot of well written technique in here. That's why I thought this piece was so important. It gave a lot of meaning when read.
I agree. This quote just touches your heart. It creates a sense of love from character to character. The addition of hyphens does a good job of informally adding details. The use of examples in this quote makes it more real, also. For example, she includes details like "steaming bowls of cream of wheat before school". This description makes the story more realistic, descriptive, entertaining, and sweet.
ReplyDeleteYou have some reasonable points but some of the points you made were why she should take care of her sister. Like you said her parents leave them home alone to starve and so its why she has to take care of her sister. But also they are the parents but they don't take good care of there kids so another reason why she needs to be a role model for her family because she is the only one who knows better and yes she should be at home more but her father scares her so that's she feels like she doesn't do enough for her sister.
ReplyDeleteomg yes i couldn't agree more! we discuss this all the time in book group and it still seems like such an important aspect of the book every time its mentioned. jennette shouldn't have to take care of her family, the parents should. sadly thats not how it works in their house hold. jennnette and the kids provide for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI love how all of the things she wants to provide for Maureen are things that are warm; "hot baths, a warm bed, steaming bowls of cream of wheat". It implies that Maureen's childhood was cold.
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