Summary:
Little Altars Everywhere, written by Rebecca Wells, is a very inspiring novel, which teaches the affects our actions have on our children.
Little Altars Everywhere is the first novel of the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood series by Rebecca Wells. In this story we meet the Walker family, from Thornton Louisiana, and find that even though on the outside the family seems pretty peachy, it is clear that looks aren't everything. Viviane Abbot Walker, the mother and wife, is pretty much the one who causes most of the pain, at least more than anyone else in this story. She is part of the Ya-Yas and feels that this is the most important aspect of her life, along with her children. This in turn causes problems at home. Her husband, Big Shep, is a cotton planter and together they have four children: Siddalee, Little Shep, Baylor, and Lulu.
Throughout this novel, there is a significant amount of opinions coming from every family member.
As the story goes on, the four Walker children, tell stories of their Southern Catholic upbringing during the early 1960's, Girl Scout outings, describing shoplifting stories, parental abuse, piano lessons, Grandma Buggy's insane poodle, and of course, adventures with their mother's friends the Ya-Yas to the great outdoors. Viviane narrates two memoirs about the struggles of marriage and motherhood; and Big Shep tells stories of his cotton farming and of his time on the Draft Board of the Vietnam War. The Walkers' "black help" Willetta and Chaney provide a thorough point of view from the daily observations on the family. Each family member gets their turn to express their feelings at that point in time, and also explain how their life has been walking in their shoes, and it gives more of an understanding as to what the family as a whole was going through instead of just listening to one narrator throughout the novel.
The book is divided into two parts: Part one is the "flashback" of all the children and their lives as a child in the early - mid 1960s. The second part of the book is the result of the upbringing and how each child has come to be over the years and what he or she fears. It is mainly a recap of their lives, and how their childhood affects them to this point. This takes place in the early 1990s, and offers a clear point of view of how each child individually coped with his or her problems, and got past, or fears, his or her childhood.
This is the complete article, containing 403 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
