In the new chapter I wrote for The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, I chose to cover a character rarely mentioned: Hattie’s mother. By developing a background for her mother (Mary), I was able to more deeply examine the motifs of disappointment, love, and the trials of life. Though Mary is mostly a character of my own making, this paper argues the idea that she had a direct impact on Hattie’s life that Hattie does not acknowledge. Part of the reason Mary is not mentioned is that nearly all of these chapters are from the children’s perspectives, and they never knew their maternal grandmother. It surprised me how little she showed up in Hattie’s narrative though; her mother is who she most likely would have spent her time with, and how her mother raised her would have a great impact on how Hattie raised her own children. Mary’s story might seem pointless: Hattie is only briefly mentioned, the story mainly focusses on meeting Hattie’s father (John) and her relationship with her father. However, I feel it is very in line with how the rest of the book goes. Mary develops these beautiful, complex …show more content…
While she still has the children, her closest friend is gone. The detachedness of the phrase has a FEW MEANINGS. Mary has been slowly losing her former self as she continues to recall what would be her worst day. It is only a few months from this moment that she passes. That line (and the line in the book) are somewhat cold and empty, but they are also things that you could not notice if there was not love. If Hattie had not loved her twins as much as she did, the symmetry might go unnoticed. If Mary had not been so in love with John, and shared a bond so strong with her father, she would not have felt their deaths so deeply to her