Essay Questions

What is the psychoanalytic implication of the letter which Grace Reeves receives?

Grace Reeves recounts, “A strange thing began to happen, though. Memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of my mind, began to sneak through cracks. The Images were tossed up high and dry, picture-perfect, as if a lifetime hadn’t passed between. And, after the first tentative drop, the deluge. Whole conversations, word for word, nuance for nuance; scenes played out as though a film.” The letter elicits Grace Reeves’ regression; consequently, the memories stir in her unconscious which is epitomized by the ‘dark reaches.’ The letter alludes to happenings which Grace Reeves stored in her unconscious all through; she had thought the the memories had been completely forgotten.

What deductions can you make about Grace Reeves’ feeling of “Parental Guilt”?

Grace Reeves expounds, “I agreed, touched by the way little untruths told to the very young are believed so implicitly. I felt a wave of affection for my prickly daughter, repressed quickly the tired old parental guilt that always surfaces when I look upon her anxious face.” Grace Reeves feels that she has not been the best parent to Ruth based on the past falsehoods she had told her. The feeling of guilt diminishes when she reckons that the untruths were motivated by her affection for Ruth. Grace Reeves thinks that she have contributed to Ruth’s manifest anxiety.