34
is Caroline’s love to Phoebe at the first sight. The first time she sees Phoebe she falls in love with her. Phoebe’s innocent face indicates that she does not deserve
to get injustice. Caroline prefers taking Phoebe with her to leaving Phoebe at institution.
a. Caroline’s Responsibility after David Henry Refuses to Take Care of Phoebe
David Henry as a father does not want to take care of Phoebe because she suffers from down syndrome. The first time he sees the baby, he knows there is
something wrong with her. He analyses his daughter’s physical appearance. According to his knowledge as a doctor, down syndrome could be possible to
have heart complication and die early. “What he was looking at were the unmistakable features, the eyes turned up as if with laughter, the epicanthal fold
across their lids, the flattened nose 21.” This condition forces David Henry to take Phoebe far from his wife,
Norah. He knows the feeling of a mother if she loses her daughter, just like David Henry’s mother when she loses his sister in the early age. She could never leave
from her grief. It really tortures David Henry to see his mother in sorrow. He does not want Norah to experience the same sadness. According to Charles P. Smith
1992, children who experienced insecurity in the primary affiliative relationship very early in life are apt to grow up with an implicit fear of rejection p. 70. This
happens to David Henry’s childhood. Because her mother was always in her
35
sadness, he did not get the attention from her and it makes him afraid if someday his wife loses their daughter, he will lose the attention of his wife also.
His sister had been born with a heart defect and had grown very slowly, her breath catching and coming in little gasp whenever she tried to run. For
many years, until the first trip to the clinic in Morgantown, they had not known what was the matter. Then, they knew, and there was nothing they
could do. All his mother’s attention had gone to her, and yet she had died when she was twelve years old. The doctor had been sixteen, already
living in a town to attend high school, already on his way to Pittsburgh and medical school and the life he was living now. Still, he remembered the
depth and endurance of his mother’s grief, the way she walked uphill to the grave every morning, her arms folded against whatever whether she
encountered. 21
To avoid his wife from sorrow, David Henry has no choice except giving Phoebe to the institution. He asks Caroline, his nurse to bring his daughter to the address
given. “There’s a place,” he said, writing the name and address on the back of an envelope. “I’d like you to take her there. When it’s light, I mean. I’ll issue the
birth certificate, and I’ll call to say you’re coming” 23. Caroline does not accept David Henry’s request directly. There is a refusal
in her side. Then, David Henry really convinces her that it is only a matter of keeping them from sorrow. “Don’t you see?” he asked, his voice soft. “This poor
child will most likely have a serious heart defect. A fatal one. I’m trying to spare us all a terrible grief” 24. David Henry does not regret in the beginning because
he believes his decision will be the best for all of them. Phoebe will get the right treatment needed for a down syndrome girl like her. “That is was no one’s fault,
that their daughter would be in good hands, with others like herself, with ceaseless care. That it would be best this way for them all” 24-25.
