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Lydia was shocked. “Dad Really For God’s sake” p.12
On another occasion Natalie cries when her father does not allow the
children to go home while their mother is waiting for them inside the car. Natalie is afraid to see her mother angry. “Look at poor Natty She’s terrified already.
Two minutes her mother’s been waiting in the car and Natalie’s nearly in tears.” p. 38
Through the author’s description, the readers can see Natalie’s reaction on her parents’ behavior. She begins to cry when her father does weird behaviors.
Actually her father is only making a joke but Natalie thinks that her father does it seriously, for example when her father feels angry with her mother and says that
he will kill his wife by chocking her neck. Thus, the quotations above implicitly describe Natalie’s characteristics as a tearful child.
B. The Parents’ Divorce
In this section the marriage life of Daniel and Miranda will be discussed, beginning from their wedding day until their decision to get divorced. The
influences of divorce on Lydia’s, Christopher’s and Natalie’s will be also discussed in this section. The last is the parental roles, what parents should be for
the children.
1. The Marriage
Greteman says that most people agree that marriage is the most significant decisions to take in their lives. When one chooses one of a marriage partner, we
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choose a companion for life; someone we can count on; someone we can trust; someone who will care for us no matter what; someone we can love and someone
we can make happy 15. Miranda says: “Anyhow, it would never have occurred to me to back out. I was so happy.
I loved him, and I wanted him, and there we were, married at last. We stepped away from the Registrar’s desk, and all our friends surged forward
to hug us and kiss us and …” She stopped short. p.107
Miranda feels the same thing when she meets Daniel. She thinks that accepting Daniel Hilliard can change her life.
I am a little straitlaced by nature, I’d be the first to admit it. But sometimes it seems to me that Daniel can act any part in the world to perfection
except that of a normal, responsible human being” She sighed. “Maybe that’s what attracted me in the first place. I’m so very serious and careful
myself, maybe I thought he made a nice change, maybe I even thought he would change me.” p.114
Standford 169 says that marriage is one of human beings’ life phase
that should be passed. Most people believe that marriage is one of the ways to make
them more mature. Furthermore, Standford insists that marriage is a kind of relationship of human beings. Marriage is a vital relationship to human beings for
the growth and development. This shows us that marriage is one phase in human life that is not easy to
get through. Every individual has different attitudes, ideas, ideals and principles through a media that we call marriage. All of those differences should be tied up
by understanding. In this phase Daniel and Miranda fail, because they let their egoism defeats their children’s happiness.
Whitehead states that marriage for a lifetime is constituted by the interaction of the couple’s relationship, the couple’s commitment and the couple’s
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lifestyle. It means that marriage for a lifetime demands both stability and responsibility. The mutual love is the core of the couple’s marriage, but in
marriage the relationship of the couple is more than just their love here and now. Marriage is focused by the promises to which they hold themselves. It is the
commitments that they make to one another that ground their love and give it duration. These commitments give the courage to undertake the risks of creative
and procreative activity together. These commitments are expressed in the choices, behavior and attitudes that make up the patterns of the couple’s life style 32.
It is described in the novel that during her marriage Miranda feels that she cannot live with her husband anymore. She thinks that she could keep her
marriage for the children. Seeing her husband with his unusual attitude and behavior, she strengthens her decision to get divorced p.102. A marriage should
be the happiest moment in a person life, a moment to share love and life. However, a happy marriage does not happen in this family since there is no understanding in
each partner.
2. The Divorce
