Brave Heart
By XXX A favourite quote of mine by John Finley is, “Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty”. It rang true, once again whilst reading Chain of Hearts, a captivating debut novel by Maureen McCarthy that explores the burden of embedded guilt through a series of flashbacks as embodied in the experiences of the central character, Sophie Douglas. Here “the origins of a bitter rift between the mother and the aunt” are revealed. The novel begins with ‘troubled’ Sophie who explores the highs and lows of teenage life through her journey into adulthood. Although many people may see Sophie as a petulant teenager, I see her, as time goes on, as someone who is fearless and compassionate.
At the beginning of the novel, Sophie is a surly teenager with very low self-esteem who refuses to go to school.
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To her, her father is weak who, “Acts so tough…The gut specialist with no guts of his own” while her mother is, “obsessive, mean-minded, controlling and vain…just to name a few” (Page …show more content…
They both “made [each other] sick” (Page 66). Geraldine, had never intended to have her, she already, “had the two perfect children that she wanted… [Sophie] was unexpected…and big and [her] birth was very difficult [as she] was a ‘huge baby’ [which meant] all kinds of complications with [her]; tearing and so many stitches that she was immobilised for weeks” (Page 84). Poor Geraldine!
To add more to the pot, her mother had to give up competitive dancing as her partner of six years, “had found someone younger and more reliable” (Page 84). What happened to faithfulness? Geraldine blamed Sophie for the betrayal and perhaps the weight of her mother’s anger influenced Sophie’s actions. A mother and daughter relationship is usually similar to that of a best friend, but it seems Sophie has fallen short and instead has been on the receiving end of her