Identity

Over the course of the novel, the author follows Becky's character from adolescence through middle age, in order to explore the ways in which childhood experiences have the power to shape the individual's understanding of self. As a young girl, Becky grows up in a single-parent home. Though she is only 14-years-old at the novel's start, she holds a significant amount of responsibility in her father's business. Ultimately, she sacrifices her teenage years to help Hank save the business, even postponing dreams of college to stay at home in Pierson. The author uses the early chapters of the novel to illustrate Becky's tendency to abandon her own needs for the sake of others. As she begins her career at the Town Hall and takes care of her ailing father, she feels pressed down by the truth of her loneliness: "no college, no boyfriend, no mother" (31). Feeling...