Guilt and Regret

Jolly’s anguish and guilt about being a single mom is largely repressed until she begins to delve deeper into her friendship with Verna. Jolly feels as if it is her fault that she is on her own and she struggles to see her situation as a failing of the men who fathered her children. Jolly cannot internalize the belief that she should not be blaming herself for the choices she made despite the negative way society perceives her actions. When she begins her self-esteem classes, however, she begins to see that the only way through is forward, and that she does not make any progress by beating herself down for who she was in the past. She can resolve to be better, and she can resolve to let go of guilt. At the end of the novel, “Jolly never calls me ever anymore...