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I'm glad u think 'Punised' works better in this form. I take in what you say but Ann is deliberately full of contradictions, inconsistency being a characteristic of adoptees, forced to live a double life from infancy. Concerning Petrina's life a living hell, you bet it is. It gets worse in the next chapter. 'Punished' is the operative word. The third person narrative, remember, is the product of Ann's imagination and betrays her true feeling towards the woman who brought her into the world then abandoned her. Mixed, confused feelings but based on an anger not always recognised by its owner. Also Ann was growing up in the fifties, a pretty grim time to be a girl, and is able to draw on her own experience of attitudes towards women. You have no idea! I don't this to appeal to the general reader, but adopters and adoptees find it useful.
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