It's hard sometimes to understand the struggle that other people deal with when they lose a parent. In the novella Leaving Gilead by Pat Carr, Saranell Birdsong, a little girl, and her parents are going through the difficult time of living during the civil war. While Ian, her father, is away at war, she is left at home with her mother, Geneva, who stays confined to her room and becomes very sick. The Birdsong family lives on a plantation and have several servants who become some of Saranell's closest friends. It's better to lose a parent thru death then thru emotional abandonment. When a small child needs comfort while they are going through a hard time they go to a parent for comfort. Saranell's father was away at war so she could only …show more content…
As Geneva is laying on her death bed she started to talk but doesn't consciously know what she's saying. "'It isn't fair to your father, I shouldn't have married him'...'Such a ridiculous- wast of years'" (Carr 142). Saranell heard this come out of Geneva's mouth even if Geneva didn't realize she said this it probably hurt Saranell's feelings. Even though Saranell was somewhat neglected by her mother, she still looks up to her and probably wants to be like her. Children look up to their parents and want to be like them and look at them as their hero. When there are problems with how they haven't been in their life they are left considering them a monster. In the book Hero's and Monsters Josh talks about his like and the relationship that he makes and fixes. "For the first time in my life, my dad isn't a hero or a monster to me. He's something in between; he's man" (Riebock 45). He's gone through the beginning part of his life considering him a hero and then the next part a monster because he left him. Now he considers him a normal man that makes mistakes like everyone else in the world but hopes to make him his hero again. No matter what parents love their children and want the best for them but sometimes they can't alway provide what they