When One of the Walls Leave

We all stood watching as the car disappeared down little Hobart Street. Lori never once looked back. I took that as a good sign. When I climbed the staircase to the house, Dad was standing on the porch, smoking a cigarette.
“This family is falling apart,” he said.
“It sure is,” I told him. (pg 230)

In this quote we can picture the Walls family watching their sister and daughter leave Welch and not once look back. Lori left the muddled town of Welch, and her family; she did this because she knew that if she did not go now she would most likely never leave. Leaving was the best decision for Lori, it was the perfect chance to escape the troubles of her life. As teenagers the Walls children suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hand of their grandmother, and were plain out excluded by the everyday folk of the town. Why would Lori want to continue to live in this wretched place? Perhaps this is what the Rose Mary and Rex Walls planned for, for their children to become independent and venture off and create a life for themselves. At this point Lori would not acknowledge her father, Rex’s alcoholic behavior had destroyed their relationship long before that. This quote invoked me with the feeling of shock. How would Lori manage to live any better in New York? She left with the little money she had saved, which was not even enough to purchase a bus ticket to New York. Lori planned to babysit a family for the summer in return for a train ticket. In New York she would know no one, but planned on starting a new life there. The short phrase Jeannette mentions after they watch Lori leave, struck me as significant, why did Jeannette take this as a good sign that Lori did not look back? Maybe this allowed her to understand that leaving wasn’t so bad, that if Lori could get out of Welch then she could as well. We also should look at Jeannette and Rex’s relationship, when she was younger she adored her father, and looked up to him. As they have grown older they have a passive relationship; Jeannette seems to have given up on her father, and her disappointment has become increasingly significant. The comment made about their family falling apart was very ironic. This is because it seems that this is the first time this idea has been voiced. In Jeannette’s mind she has known this for a long time, and maybe has always known. This was the first time that Rex admits how dysfunctional their family really is.