Character List:
Mary Follet: Jay Follet’s wife, Rufus and Catherine Follet’s loving mother, Joel and Catherine Lynch’s responsible daughter. She is a devout Christian and a homemaker with a dislike for alcohol and atheism that causes her to clash with her nonreligious family members.
Hannah Lynch: Mary’s aunt. She is a mother figure to Mary and helps Mary with household work and child care. She spoils Rufus and Catherine when Mary denies them of frivolous items
Andrew Lynch: Mary’s caring brother. He, unlike his sister, is completely nonreligious
Summary: Ch. 8: Quite late in the evening, Mary receives a phone call from an unknown man who notifies her that Jay got into a major car accident. Mary is distraught, but she believes God will spare her husband’s life. She then calls Andrew and asks him to go to the location where Jay was found, and to bring Hannah to her own house. When Hannah arrives, she attempts to comfort Mary, who is
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This denies the readers the ability to know what truly happens to Jay or how he felt in his last living moments. Previous foreshadowing that indicated this day would be Jay’s death day provides dramatic irony for this event since readers were already aware of it, but the characters were not. Jay’s death is also ironic because he was driving to visit his critically ill father, but he ended up passing away. Before Mary turns to her family members for comfort, she prays to God. This demonstrates her intense religious devotion that helps her throughout the aftermath of Jay’s death. Similarly, when Joel speaks with Mary, he hopes she will sensibly and logically act as opposed to religiously. Because Joel is not religious, he holds a different perspective for how to handle this devastation than Mary does. This alludes to the ongoing clash in Mary’s family between religious and nonreligious