Who is Lark Ann Browning Erhardt from The Cape Ann and what is their importance?

Lark Ann Browning Erhardt is the six-year-old main character of The Cape Ann who suffers many psychological growing pains as she sorts through the complexities of her life. She loses some of the fairy tale innocence of childhood and begins her growth into a young lady, capable of using a discerning eye to figure out the truth of what it means to grow up. Flanked on one side by a strict, controlling father who uses spanking as a means of punishment, and on the other by a mother whose angry emotions toward her father get the best of her on many occasions, Lark is left with bearing the burdens of her parents' problems. Her anxiety gets the best of her and she unconsciously bites her nails, down to the quick sometimes. Lark beats herself up for the issues her parents need to address.