Parental Neglect

Keegan seeks to present both the main character and the Kinsellas as victims of different kinds of trauma, and the main character's trauma is given more by implication; we can deduce, however, that a good deal of that trauma springs from her parents' neglect. Her trauma is never explicitly named, but hints of it are provided at many times during the novella, especially in the beginning when she is still feeling out and getting used to her new surroundings at the Kinsellas' house. During her first night there, when she is visited by a woman whose identity we never truly learn (nor are we ever sure if this is a dream or fiction), she "breathes as though [she] has not wakened" (25) when she arrives, emphasizing her discomfort with the intrusion after Keegan writes of how the main character is already "more than half afraid" at...