Moving On

So, yah now down to the real business of blogging. With the new book, "All that Lives" there is a great undercurrent going on with the themes of the book.

Family, for one. Within the text, the main story is not about the poltergeist (if you can call it that) but rather about how it affects the family, hurting them or uniting them. At the beginning of the book the family seems like a very sturdy thing, they support each other but aren't very intimate. With her father, we get hints that he is sexually abusing her but it is never said out right, for example he carries her up to bed, and then "lies with [her] through all the night" but she is always in admiration of him and her brother who "reminds me oft of father in his manner" and yet, she is afraid of him, and would never defy him. This is that typical kind of family secret that is under the covers but never surfaces. This family is a very profound depiction because it does show the multiple sides of a family. One where when the spirit attacks they rush to each other's side and protect each other, and yet one that has secrets that can tear them apart. Throughout the story we see how the spirit breaks the family down. It tortures them, threatens them, reveals things to each other, like when Betsy started kissing her beau, the spirit told the entire family almost. It killed their father, and drove away two of her brothers, and in the end it left her alone and depressed for the rest of her life.

It's actually kind of strange,but the being actually seems to bring the family together at times as well. During the attacks- they are always there for each other. They prayed together always, ate together, and bonded through their fear. At school they defended each other and essentially became each other's closest friends and companions as everyone else slowly started to pull away. It brought out a strength in Betsy and her mother that would never have been highlighted in their daily lives.

So that's one theme, the others will come later, this one is long enough.