Themes and Motifs

One theme that I saw carry out throughout the novel was that children living in a broken home are mature and dependent. This can be seen through out the novel since Ruth has always been so responsible ever since a very young age. Living with a manic depressive mother and a push over dad, Ruth was always left with very important decisions to make. Having to mature fast and be a responsible child, Ruth had to clean up after her mother’s mistakes and learn not to be hurt by her mother’s depression but to strengthen herself from it. Ruth’s maturity is very noticeable by the people living around her, even her own mother would brag to her friend about Ruth, saying how, “She’s so grown up”(43). Even though her maturity hurt her in the long run when Ruth ended up with the wrong group of friends, She ended up learning from her mistake and made better decisions. Even another example from a child living from a broken home is Béatrice. Her parents are not loving and caring to her but instead they are portrayed as respectable adult figures to her. Béatrice is happy to start a real relationship with her dad, and in order to build that relationship to the next level she cooks and studies cuisine for her dad. This may not create an extremely strong relationship between the two of them, but it still attaches emotions in their detached lives.
Ruth’s dependence is a major motif to Ruth’s maturity. Mrs. Peavy advices to Ruth “to look out for yourself”(49), Ruth demonstrates this by taking care of herself when her parents would live her alone for a period of time. This is also seen when Ruth goes to the French school and she struggles to make friends but yet stays strong and mature and in the end makes great friends such as Béatrice. Ruth is more mature than all the characters around her.