“Mom told me she had entered my name in a raffle at the fair, and I’d won a helicopter ride. I was thrilled. I had never been in a helicopter or plane.
‘When do I get to go on the ride?’ I asked.
‘Oh, we already did that,’ Mom said. ‘It was fun.’”
This quote speaks volumes to the type of person Jeanette's mother is. It shows her as a selfish and irresponsible woman. What kind of mother would enter their severely injured child into a raffle and then take the prize for themselves. So rather than staying at the hospital and making sure that her daughter is okay she goes off and has a joy ride on a helicopter? That is irresponsibility at its finest; and then to tell your child about it! Jeanette would have never known about the helicopter ride if they had not told her, telling her was almost like a slap in the face. It was almost her way of punishing Jeanette for burning herself, which would not have happened if she had not allowed her three year old daughter to cook on a gas stove with an open flame by herself!
The mother is not the only irresponsible parent. Her father’s irresponsibility is shown later in the novel when he breaks Jeanette out of the hospital, which is the cleanest, safest place she could possibly be in. Before he broke her out I was wondering how they were going to pay the hospital bill, the longer Jeanette stayed there the more expensive the bill became. I got my answer when Rex broke her out, because I am assuming that if he broke her out of the hospital, he was never planning on paying the bill. So the hospital bill was added to the ever-growing collection of unpaid bills. Adding more bills only means that they have to move more frequently to avoid the bill collectors they are running from, or as her father calls them, the FBI. Also, to teach your four year old child to shoot a shotgun seems rather unsafe and is another example of their irresponsibility. Especially teaching your four year old child to shoot at the "FBI" if they ever catch them. He is essentially telling his daughter that it is okay to murder. Although some actions are pushed more by certain parents, certain actions can not be placed on one single parent as their sole act of irresponsibility either. Both parents go along with what happens, so they should each share the blame of irresponsibility that is present in their family.
‘When do I get to go on the ride?’ I asked.
‘Oh, we already did that,’ Mom said. ‘It was fun.’”
This quote speaks volumes to the type of person Jeanette's mother is. It shows her as a selfish and irresponsible woman. What kind of mother would enter their severely injured child into a raffle and then take the prize for themselves. So rather than staying at the hospital and making sure that her daughter is okay she goes off and has a joy ride on a helicopter? That is irresponsibility at its finest; and then to tell your child about it! Jeanette would have never known about the helicopter ride if they had not told her, telling her was almost like a slap in the face. It was almost her way of punishing Jeanette for burning herself, which would not have happened if she had not allowed her three year old daughter to cook on a gas stove with an open flame by herself!
The mother is not the only irresponsible parent. Her father’s irresponsibility is shown later in the novel when he breaks Jeanette out of the hospital, which is the cleanest, safest place she could possibly be in. Before he broke her out I was wondering how they were going to pay the hospital bill, the longer Jeanette stayed there the more expensive the bill became. I got my answer when Rex broke her out, because I am assuming that if he broke her out of the hospital, he was never planning on paying the bill. So the hospital bill was added to the ever-growing collection of unpaid bills. Adding more bills only means that they have to move more frequently to avoid the bill collectors they are running from, or as her father calls them, the FBI. Also, to teach your four year old child to shoot a shotgun seems rather unsafe and is another example of their irresponsibility. Especially teaching your four year old child to shoot at the "FBI" if they ever catch them. He is essentially telling his daughter that it is okay to murder. Although some actions are pushed more by certain parents, certain actions can not be placed on one single parent as their sole act of irresponsibility either. Both parents go along with what happens, so they should each share the blame of irresponsibility that is present in their family.