Concrete Image: Aunt/ Naughty Child

My aunt died of breast cancer earlier this year. I barely even knew her. My mother and father always quarlelled who destroyed her life. My father said my grandparents ruined her life while my mother says it was my father's fault all along. They both have their opinions. Nor did it help when I was eight or nine years old, my mother and my aunt stopped seeing each other. My mother always labeled her sister as the naughty child ofthe family, as if she was the perfect one.

In The Rake, at the mother's funeral the sister learns her mother was the naughty child in the family. Instantly I remebered my own aunt. She was labeled the trouble maker. I know she did not get beat like the mother in the rake though. Still, to label a child naughty and then for the rest of their lives to keep that same persepective of her. It's digustful.

How can a mother or father taint one of their children as naughty and then to beat them for that? It is beyond understanding. By creating that child, God is entrusting you to provide adequately for the child and this is just monetary. If not, punishment in the next life will be for certain. Earlier in the essay, the sister walks in on the grandfather, mother, and stepfather in an emotional state. The grandfather is crying; unable to say three words "I love her". It is almost like a sin; you are saying you do not love your child. Why cannot the grandfather muster enough courage to say he loves his daughter. Is it because he will finally feel the remorse for his actions?

The only explanation for me is guilt. The grandfather is guilty of his past actions. Now my stomach is churning. Why can't people just forgive and let love. Be merciful to each other.