Introduction
The loss of one, or even worse, both parents, when a child is growing up, will normally cause dislocation in the child's orientation. It will also normally cause a disruption in the child's orientation, relationship with others. It will change the way in which a child will view the world in general, also. There is nothing so shocking to a child's nature as the loss of a parent. This is most true when the child is growing and developing toward adulthood.
We know that the loss of one parent causes untold misery, untold grief. But when a child has the grievous misfortune to lose both of his parents, the loss is tremendous. If the loss of both mother and father come together, or their loss is closely spaced, it is critically jarring. When a child is small, his parents are his whole world. The mother makes up one half of this little world, the father the other half.
As the child grows up, his world begins to expand. By the time he reaches his teen years he is fighting for independence from his parents in a natural effort to assert his own manhood or womanhood. But, even as the teenager strives to gain independence, study proves that he does not truly yet want that independence. He is simply testing his wings, is trying to fly, as a young bird does when it first attempts to leave its nest.
What do we have in this searching, tempestuous novel? We have two sisters. One is in her early teen years, the other is approaching her late teen years. Both girls are close to their parents. Girls, as a general rule, are always closer to their parents than boys are. So, when young girls suffer the loss of a parent or both parents, the loss is shattering.
The girls in this book are hit by the worse tragedy that young girls have to face. No tragedy can match the loss that these two youngsters suffer. They lose both their father and mother at once. Suddenly their tight, little world has gone crash. Gone in a horrible instant are their security and their shelter and their love. They are thrust out into the world alone, and they are both too young to cope with the sudden tragedy.
Once the girls lose their parents they are cut adrift, must make their way in the world without the guidance they have come to rely on throughout their lives. They are neither mature enough to shoulder the responsibility of making judgments that were once made for them by their parents. They are taken in by a relative. Neither of the girls has ever been particularly close to this relative. But now, in their moment of crisis, they must look for security and guidance from an adult who has long been little more than a friendly stranger.
Once the girls no longer have a mother and father, a great section of their total outlook undergoes a severe twist. Will they become fatal in their outlook? Will they become cynical? Will they become embittered ? Any of these things and more can happen. Certainly they will no longer look at the world with the secure eyes of innocence.
In their new home the handling of the girls becomes of critical moment. They are two lost souls seeking love and security. They will do virtually anything to obtain love and security. The desire to satisfy these basic, twin needs can be perverted, twisted. The girls are deeply hurt and vulnerable. They are pliable. They will naturally rely heavily on the adult who has taken the place of their departed parents. If this adult does not handle the upbringing of the girls with care, patience and understanding, the entire future lives of the girls can be radically changed from the direction in which they were tending.
It is very important that the home into which the girls move be one of strong love and affection. The girls have an excessive need for love and affection since their primary source has been wiped away forever. In the best of all possible worlds the girls will move into the home of relatives-a man and a woman-relatives who will strive to the utmost of their ability to provide a home that closely resembles the home that they have lost.
But, what if the home into which the girls move is not a home that they need ? What if there is no woman in the home? Certainly a woman is of primary importance to growing girls, much more so than to growing boys. Unfortunately, the girls move into the home of a man, their uncle. His wife is dead, and he is their closest living relative. Legally, the girls are bound over to the care of the uncle, the brother of the girls' mother. The two teenage girls now must put all their trust in their uncle. The way in which he behaves will determine the kind of women that they will one day become.
Mentally and emotionally, the girls are dreadfully cut adrift. Things that they have been taught are wrong can become right in an improper environment. The girls are ready for anything, since they are still young, impressionable and pliable. They are both girls turning into young women. At this stage of their development anything can happen. Dramatic changes are coming over their bodies, changes far more dramatic than those that a boy goes through as he passes into puberty.
For girls the change is vastly more dramatic. The straight lines of their girlish figures disappear. Suddenly boys and men begin to look at them differently. They are still too young to securely handle the dramatic physical changes. And, along with the startling physical changes come deep emotional changes. The young girl now possesses the body of a young woman, the new emotions of a young woman, but she is basically still a girl.
If the adult on whom she relies does not handle her correctly, the girl can be damaged mentally and emotionally. The girl will not realize the damage that has been done her until she adds riper years to her life. Sadly, some girls never realize that damage has been done to them.
The sisters in this novel are thrust into an adult world at far too young an age for both. They cannot hope to grope intelligently with a more experienced world. They are incapable of such groping. But grope they must. And their only source of security and guidance is the man who cares for them, protects them and is charged with the important task of rearing them. If he discharges this delicate and sensitive task wisely, the girls have no need to fear for their future development. But what if the man is not equal to the task ? This is the problem that faces the reader of this book.
The man is not equal to the task. Unfortunately he wishes to do right by the girls now in his charge, but he is not equipped to care for them or rear them or advise them properly. The man has also sustained a loss, the loss of his wife. The less has battered him, just as the loss of the girls' parents has distressed the girls. His outlook has been marred by his own loss. Part of his stability and security has gone fluttering away on the wings of death.
Although the author does not fill in all the gaps between the lines, he clearly leads us to see under the superficial layers of prose the situation as it exists when the girls come to live with him. They are truly three lost people thrown together at a time wrong for all of them. But they must all try to make the best of a bad situation and, unfortunately, they do not make the best of it. The man's loss, multiplied by the girls' loss, causes much emotional turmoil. By the end of the book f-ll three have been seared and marked.
Perhaps in another time, in another home, this story would not have occurred. But, given the situation created by the author, things could not be other than they are.
This is a very sad novel. In seeking happiness they make the intelligent reader unhappy, since their plight is one that could be avoided if more level heads had prevailed. But one cannot change life when one has no control over the players. And, the reader has no control; he must simply read, think, feel and wish he could alter the situation so that things would be different.
I have said that this is a sad book. Certainly it is not a dirge. In fact, there are bright and at times amusing moments. But, basically, it is the situation that the reader must witness ... that is sad. If only the girls' parents had not been untimely ripped from their bosoms; if only the girls had been given over to the care of a close, intimate relative or relatives who were warm and acutely sensitive to their needs; if only we could reach out with our hands and gently take the girls to a safer more compatible place, a place where they would be secure to grow and flower naturally. If, if, if. The world is made up of ifs. And, ifs have never changed anything.
Standing away, remote, a person can abstractly and logically reason out the correct way in which to handle a situation. But, when a person is thrust hotly into the center of a situation in which he must think and feel quickly and intelligently-ah, that is another story. At such a moment one too often is forced to rely solely on his instincts, and, though instincts are often sound, more often they are unsound, since judgments are made in the heat of the moment with no chance for cool, sober, reflective thought. The man of this piece is a man vulnerable, a man deeply compelled by his own loss. He is not as stable as he should be. He needs his lost woman, his wife. But, she is gone forever, just as the girls' parents are gone forever. How, then, can the man ever hope to cope well with two young, impressionable, pliable nieces ? He hasn't a chance. And so, we have here a triple tragedy. It might not strike the casual reader as such, but indeed it is a triple tragedy that provides the main line of this telling story.
Do not be unduly surprised by the way in which the girls and their uncle behave. Their situation predestines their fate. Things can be no other way than the way they are. Think, think as you read these pages, think deeply. Do not merely skim the surface, for, if you do, you will be cheating yourself of understanding.
You will find this novel well worth your reading journey. There is true social value to be gained by the reading. Somewhere there is perhaps a reader, or a future reader of this book, who has gone through a similar situation. That reader will be struck deeply by what he reads. The rest of us will have to intuitively gain from the experience of reading. Perhaps society will one day devise a more intelligent way in which to guide orphans. Perhaps a wise man or woman will one day sway thinking people, people with power, to give deeper thought to the upbringing of children who have lost their parents. When that day comes, the story that you are about to read will no longer need to be written. Until that day arrives, fate and circumstance will cruelly rule the future of growing children. No matter what we think, boys and girls in their teens are still children.
As you read, keep this thought in mind. It will make the reading that more rewarding.
Howard Silver, Ph.D.
Atlanta, Georgia