Petula's Death In Optimists Die First

At the start of the book Optimists Die First, Petula, our main character, has a very pessimistic view of the world. Which is triggered by the death of her little sister Maxine. Petula thinks that the death is her fault. “I love you Maxine, I’m sorry Maxine. I said that every night. Because I was the one who’d killed her” (Nielsen 20). She was watching Maxine and the baby went quiet, so Petula thought she had gone to bed, but when their parents got home they found out that Maxine had choked on a button from the wolf costume Petula had made her. This causes Petula a lot of guilt and grief, as well as her parents. Petula becomes absorbed in little things around her to try to keep herself and her loved ones safe. Petula will take detours to walk

“Yes, my mom calls the cats her babies. And yes, it’s pretty easy to find deeper meaning behind it. But the cats -especially Ferdinand- helped drag her out of her pit of despair after Maxine died.” (Nielsen 16) After the passing of Maxine, Petula’s parents would fight more often about little things. Petula doesn’t like this and is trying to keep everyone together especially after the loss of Maxine. Petula will think ahead to the things that her parents might fight about and will take care of it in advance to prevent an argument or a conflict from arriving. Petula justifies her pessimistic attitude by saying “Studies show that in general, optimists die ten years earlier than pessimists.... Pessimists are more realistic. They take more precautions... It’s a safe way to govern your life” (Nielsen 8) She believes that it is best to “Always expect the worst. That way, you might stand a chance of protecting yourself and the ones you love.” (Nielsen, 2) but it probably stems from all the negative emotions she has as she is burnt-out and trying to keep her family from falling apart. All of these leads to some confrontations later on in the