Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott Essay

Take a moment and imagine a family of six traveling from city to city in order to survive, their only home, a car. Suddenly as their driving along a women speeds into them crashing, and wrecking their home. They be any thusly taken to a hospital, where the family discoers that the bring in has progressive crabmeat in her lymph nodes. After this discovery, the father decides to skip town leaving his wife, three young children and elderly m another(prenominal) homeless. Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott is an exceptional novel. Endicott won the Commonwealth Writers apprise for Best book in Canada and the Caribbean for Good to a Fault. Why might you ask? Each reference work is so extraordinarily weakened and so well described it feels as if you know them yourself. Their emotions, thoughts and actions argon so personal that at the end of the novel Endicott has created a wonderful and realistic person. Their conflicts atomic number 18 so profound, that they are crippling to th e characters that suffer under them. And a make-up that so important that the book is named after it. same(p) most novels Good To A Fault has a variety characters with an array of personalities, thoughts and behaviors. What sets it aside from others, is the vivid movie of not only the fundamental characters of the allegory, but even the characters that are only introduced once. The rotation of perspectives gives the novel a self-colored new view on each characters true personality and on the conflicts they face. As Mary Jo Murphy from the New York Times said, its the quieter introspective dramas, provided by Endicotts upright rotation among the characters points of view, that hold your attention. Each characters thoughts are described by the author in exact correspondence with their personalities. For example Paul, who is a pastor, often indirectly makes allusions to faith.Like when he and Darwin are attachment up Claras basement Paul says, Today is a time for rejuvenation pg. 153 or when he is speaking to Clara about her generosity towards the Gages he says You sacrificed yourself for others pg.329 Through this, Endicott solidifies Pauls personality, tying him to his religion. Making Paul a symbol of Christianity which brings into question the faith of many an(prenominal) characters. Allowing the reviewer to experience the many sides of faith. Apart from that , appearance and reputation help to build complete characters.Take the protagonist Clara , Paul describes her as single, childless of course, took care with her appearance, fortyish, Christian, and not in good spirits for some time since her poses death. pg.26. This information helps develop a rounded character. It isnt enough just to say that Clara is a nice person, so that is why she takes care of the Gage family. The author uses her faith, age and relationship status to give reason for her generous actions. It helps the referee gain a better understanding of Claras personality, and accordingl y builds a relationship between the reader and the protagonist.Above all things what sets this book aside from any other is the conflicts. Unlike most books the conflict of this account statement introduces itself in the very first paragraph, The other car came from nowhere, speeding through on the yellow, going so fast it was almost safely past when Claras car caught it.pg. 7. Because of this you would think that there would be no rising action, no excitement and no great lesson for the protagonist to learn, but you would be wrong. This conflict originally appears as if it will have the most impact, but it does not. In fact it stems off into several other conflicts that characters struggle with individually, and as a group. For instance, Lorraines diagnosis with cancer. This leads to her husband, Clayton, struggling to find his family a safe home, which he fails to do on his own.This throws him bitter because instead of him finding a solution through hard work, he is leftover t o stay with the very women who put them in the situation, Clara. As he says when confronting Clara at the hospital, Hard on you? Hard to sit and watch the results of what you did?pg23. He decides to deal with this by leaving the family. His actions burden Clara with the care of the family he left behind. Leading to Claras guilt of driving the childrens father away and leaving the mother all totally. Ultimately she struggles with the idea that she cares for the Gage family either out of guilt or to fill the put down spaces not only in her spare rooms, but in her life. It only took Endicott one simple attendant to create a million other problems throughout the novel. Each conflict faced, allows the reader to understand more(prenominal) about each characters role in the story. Finally molding the novel into the theme.The theme I took from this novel was personal satisfaction of goodwill is the only payment for humanity,for if its not, the deeds bring no true meaning. However whe n I contacted Marina Endicott on twitter she described the theme as follows How the debt of charity is redeemed Love your neighbour as yourself. After Clara divorces her husband, she is left wounded by their short, detached marriage. Her parents then become ill and she must care for them. But soon they both die leaving Clara alone with all their possessions and burdens. When Clara opens up her home to the Gage family and a friends daughter, she must decide whether her actions are truly pure and for others benefit, or greedy and only being used to fill the void left by her parents and husband.So she questions herself, I see what they need, but I am unwilling to help.pg 25 When Clara takes in the Gage family she originally believes she is doing it to make up for the car accident she caused. As the visit becomes longer Clara grows more and more attached to the family as she brings them into her life. Caring for them soon becomes less of an obligation, and more of a desire as she grows to truly love the Gages like they were her own. She becomes so attached that she does not wish that they leave her home, and when they do she is deeply angered. She did not want anything, except Pearce back, and Dolly, and Trevor except the life she had left this afternoon, to run over and help Lorraine- to help her againpg.327 .This theme is a great topic that adds depth the novel.The whole story Clara is faced with deciding whether what she does is out of loneliness or out of good will. It is a topic that we should all consider when we decide to do something charitable. And yet another reason why I believe this is a wonderful piece of litterature. Ultimately this book incorporates everything that makes a good, memorable novel . Its realistic, likeable and relatable characters grasp the reader the attached to the story. These characters face conflicts that challenge them physically and emotional but lead them to fulfilling rewards. Finally these elements are all summed up to creat e a concrete theme of charity versus selfishness, a topic seldom touched on in our society. These elements of the novel piece the story together as a whole and make it strong enough to last the test of time. This is a great novel.