Essay Questions

Anne and Marco are both irresponsible parents. Illustrate the truthfulness of this statement using instances from Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door.

Shari Lapena presents the characters Marco and his wife Anne as irresponsible parents, particularly in the earlier chapters of the novel. After Cynthia and her husband Graham organize a birthday party on the occasion of Graham’s birthday, Marco and Anne are invited to attend on the condition that they leave their six-month-old baby alone in the house. As such, Marco convinces his wife Anne to leave the child, Cora, alone in the house. Ironically, Anne agrees to leave the baby alone in the house despite being aware of how irresponsible of her to leave the child alone in the house: “It was irresponsible. She wonders what the other mothers in her mom’s group would think if she ever told them. We left our six-month-old baby home alone and went to a party next door” (The Couple Next Door, 10). The act of leaving Cora alone in the house without a babysitter brings to light the extent of Anne and Marco’s degree of absurdity and impracticality.

Additionally, while Marco and Anne are at the party at Graham’s, the two get drunk. Anne gets intoxicated to the extent that she is not aware of the amount of wine that she had had: “Now she has no idea how much wine she’s drunk over the course of the interminable dinner party. She’ll have to pump and dump her breast milk in the morning” (The Couple Next Door, 7). Anne’s excessive alcohol consumption comes as a shock considering the fact that she was a nursing mother. The author uses her drunken state and her apparent lack of responsibility as a backdrop for critiquing irresponsible parenting. Marco is also drunk to the extent that he flirts with Cynthia, Graham’s wife in his presence. As a result of their negligent parenthood, their baby gets kidnapped.

Discuss the character of Richard Dries as a symbol of ambidexterity using illustrations from Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door.

In The Couple Next Door, the cunning and deceptive nature of Richard Dries, Anne’s stepfather is evident. In the novel, the primary conflict is as a result of Richard’s apparent fraudulent tendencies. Not only does he deceive his wife and daughter, but he also cheats his son in law with regards to the matter of Cora’s kidnapping.

Richard is part of the plan that results in the kidnap of Cora, his stepdaughter's child. He is inconsiderate of the fact that the abduction would have devastating effects on both the infant and its mother. Richard’s greed and lack of empathy drive him into doing the most unthinkable events in the novel. Later in the novel, when his avariciousness takes the better of him, he decides to kill Derek, his criminal associate in order to have the ransom paid for the release of the baby to himself. Richard, together with Marco, is used by the author to bring to light the concept of fraudulence in the novel as the two indulge in cunning, deceitful and hypocritical behavior.