turkey 3

So I just read the next 60 pages of the Gravedigger's Daughter, and I think I might have underestimated Rebecca at first. This section is a flashback to the beginning of her life and with the way her family was, it's no surprise she grew up with some issues. 

"Calmly Pa said, You despise me, don't you. 

Calmly Pa said, Tell you what, Ma. I'll buy a gun. Shotgun. You can blow Jacob Schwart's head off, Ma. Spray his brains all over your precious wall. 

But Rebecca's mother had drifted away, indiffererent."

First, to clarify, Pa and Jacob Schwart's are the same person, and Ma is Rebecca's mother and Pa is her father. There are a couple of things that are interesting about this quote. Obviously, it's odd that a husband would give his wife permission to blow his head off with a gun. Previous to this Ma had made a joke about who would want even Pa's bones, but she isn't right in her head and this comment was clearly a very absent-minded one. Pa is a gravedigger and I think thats why he feels so free to say this because he has seen death so up close, some might even say he works for death. It also seems as though he feels he has nothing to live for. His two sons are failures, he didn't want his daughter, and his wife is non-existent to him except for her apparent use in blowing his head off. So far this book has been somewhat confusing, as there are a lot of those hints that author's give but then they won't follow directly up on the subject, they make you wait until the end of the book to tell the whole story straight. One thing that's clear though, is that these relationships are not based off of love. Not the one between Rebecca and her husband, and definately not the one between her father and her mother. How can two people stay together for so long and have no real affection, or even passion for eachother? That's my question for all of you.