Absolution in the New Year Summary

On New Year's Eve the girl dreams of her dead father and the humiliation she suffered the night he finds her diary and reads it under harsh lights, convinced that he will find the mystery of a secret life. When he reads about her first puppy love and her wish to escape from her father, her very first love, the girl wonders what she would do if her father actually did send her away. When her mother offers consolation and the excuse of her father's motivation, the girl tears up the pages and drops them for her mother to sweep away.

Absolution in the New Year Analysis

Years after her father's death, the girl still dreams of her humiliation at her father's hands and how her mother didn't defend her right to privacy. Although her...