Chapter 7 Summary

Whenever Jim is at work, he worries about the situation at home. As bad as conditions of his job get, he puts up with everything because he needs all the money he can get to take care of his family. In the evenings, when he goes home, he never knows what Anna will be like. Some evenings, she insists that he rest after his hard day. Other times, she is resentful that he does not help her more, or she just ignores everything around her, in a daze. The condition of the house gets worse and worse. Mazie and Will run wild, and Anna does not have the strength to control them. Besides, she wants to let them be children. Anna sometimes enters a detached state, where she does not really seem to be there mentally. She never loses her terror of the...