I got the impression that the refusal was a temporary change. She seems like a loving mother, in general, and I just don't think she could refuse her daughter forgiveness like that. She wouldn't have done anything like it before because Dee had been away from home for a while, and before she left, she wasn't quite so... pretentious. I use that word a lot. I think it's because anything that gets put under the heading "literature" has a tendency toward that, but that is a generalization, and oh well. Anyway, she did it when she did because she wouldn't stand for Dee/W-thing hurting Maggie, who was always well-mannered and never presumptuous like her older sister.
Some details foreshadowing the refusal include all the accounts by the narrator, who is the mother, of Maggie's more sympathy-inducing qualities. She envisions Maggie's awkwardness upon Dee's arrival and mentions Maggie's burns and her feelings of shame about them repeatedly. These accounts show the mother's protective nature, which wouldn't lend itself to allowing anyone to hurt Maggie, even if Maggie said she wouldn't mind.
Ummm so is "Love the Way You Lie" on here because Maggie has scars from burns? If so, that's extra-special trendy and pop cultery of you.
ReplyDeleteYeeeeees, that was my reasoning. I can't on the tone of that last bit that you said there. I just kind of decided to post that part reeeeal quick-like. Also, I sort of like that song, which surprises me.
ReplyDeleteAnd ohmygoshrevelation, we should refer to Dee as D.W., like the girl aardvark on Arthur. Because her new name starts with W. AHA! *triestomakeitsoundimpressive*
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think somebody in class today literally said Dee just "stood there and watched her burn." I was excited, but nobody else seemed to notice, so I was going to let it go, but then the song was stuck in my head.
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