Belonging and Acceptance

Throughout the novel, Lara’s time at the Oasis Mobile Estates augments her desire for belonging and acceptance. After years of moving from town to town and state to state with her mother, Lara’s only sense of home and stability is defined by Yevgenia. Although she resides with her mother in the narrative present, she lives with the constant fear of Yevgenia’s abandonment. In Part I, Chapter 1, Lara explains that the years her mother left her with acquaintances and coworkers “created a savage hunger in me that’s hard to shake” (11). Throughout Lara’s teenage years, therefore, Lara says that she has been yoked to her mother, “leaving little space between us” (11). She describes herself over the years as “the inextricable daughter, physically and mentally” (11). Upon their arrival at the Oasis, however, Lara is 16, and entering a phase in which she is...