PART THREE - WELCH

SECTION TWELVE (Pages 175-179)

Summary

Winter comes hard to Welch that year. At first, Jeannette loves it, because the snow makes everything seem clean and cozy. However, that feeling soon changes when the cold begins to seep into their house. They have no heat but the stove in the living room, and Mom refuses to buy $50 worth of coal, which will last them the entire winter. So Jeannette and Brian go around following the coal trucks to grab up pieces that have fallen off. They don't usually get enough to last even an evening, so they turn to wood from the woods. The problem is that the wood seldom is dry enough to burn. Meanwhile, Mom says that they should be thankful, because they have it better than the pioneers. When Brian mentions that they don't have a lick of insulation in........

Notes

There is a great deal of irony in this section, and once again, Mom appears just selfish or totally unaware of reality. She always has a comment designed to make her children feel guilty for complaining about the terrible circumstances in which she has placed them, while she seems to grow fatter and.......

SECTION THIRTEEN (Pages 180-185)

Summary

Erma dies during the last hard snowfall that year. Dad says her liver gave out while Mom says she slowly committed suicide by drinking herself to death. Her funeral is much more elaborate than one would expect from a poor woman and has been carefully laid out by Erma herself who wrote down everything she wanted at the service. Her death brings out Mom's pious side, which means that Mom is very dramatic about how she behaves at the Mass and how she tries to get the kids to kiss their grandmother goodbye. They all refuse, but..........

Notes

With this section, the reader must begin to wonder what it will take to make Mom see how she abuses ......

 

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