Abandonment

Abandonment is seen through the eyes of many characters. April Hall is the character that experiences this theme most acutely from the very beginning of the novel. Readers learn that April's mother, Dorothea, has sent April to live with her paternal grandmother, Caroline Hall. It's uncertain why Dorothea doesn't want to have her daughter living with her, other than inconvenience. April tries to take this abandonment in stride by acting far older than her eleven years.

Caroline Hall also suffers from abandonment. Not only does she feel empathy for her granddaughter's abandonment by her mother, it has been years since she has heard from or seen her former daughter-in-law. Caroline's son, April's father, had been married to Dorothea but was killed in the Vietnam War. In some ways, readers may feel that Caroline's emotions run a bit deeper because not only was she abandoned by her former daughter-in-law...