Essay Questions

Why does Mary Anne Parkin leave her husband?

Mary Anne leaves her husband because she cannot take the loneliness of her marriage. David has kept his feelings closed off since the death of their daughter, Andrea, twenty years before. He will not share his pain with his wife, and she cannot take this despair any longer.

Why does David Parkin go in search of his long-lost mother? Does he find her?

David Parkin searches for his mother to understand why she could not love him. He is told that his mother committed suicide twenty years ago. This leads him to understand that he had abandoned his life as his mother had he just hadn’t done so in person. He had emotionally left his life behind him at the death of Andrea. It gives him the chance to make amends and become the man he once was.

How are Sophia and David alike?

David and Sophia both are in search of a parent who had abandoned them. Sophia finds her father left speechless and delusional from a stroke. She prays that he will become lucid enough to acknowledge that she is there. He does at the end before he dies. Sophia learns that Lawrence abandoned her so that she would not have the same disadvantages in her life as he did. David does not have the same closure with his mother.