Do you think that The Secret Keeper's characters live the lives they deserve? Were you satisfied and surprised at their various outcomes and their influences on each other?
Created: 07/09/13
Replies: 12
Join Date: 10/15/10
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Join Date: 04/02/13
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Join Date: 06/19/12
Posts: 408
I have a hard time making "fairness" part of the equation. I feel like none of us get what we "deserve" - either good or bad. Certainly Vivien did not "deserve" to be abused, although perhaps she came close to deserving the happy life she ultimately lived. I don't think Dorothy "deserved" to die - but she didn't deserve to succeed at her blackmail plan either. And Jimmy did not "deserve" to spend time in prison. Although perhaps Henry Jenkins came close to an appropriate end condition. he's pretty much the only one.who "got what was coming to him" in the end.
Join Date: 12/17/12
Posts: 206
I agree with Dianac and laurap. Thinking that people deserve their lives is dangerous, because pretty soon people start thinking that others deserve it when something bad happens, like an illness or death of a child. It's not my job to judge other people's lives, although its interesting to read about them.
Join Date: 10/16/10
Posts: 966
Regardless of fair or not, judging or not, I was very happy that both Vivien and Jimmy ended up having good lives, with children and spouses who loved & respected them. Yeah, it was a bit overly convenient for the author to tie up every last loose end, but I was still glad Morton did. Don't we all love a (more or less) happy ending?
Join Date: 07/16/13
Posts: 117
I have to agree with the comments here. Deserving isn't really the word I would use. Hindsight is 20/20, and we can all look back at things that have happened in our lives and question whether we deserved something or not. I'd rather think of my experiences as life lessons, although I've never had to deal with abuse. I also am happy that in the end Vivien and Jimmy ended up having good lives.
Join Date: 07/16/13
Posts: 45
Second chances seem to be a big theme in The Secret's Keeper. Do you think that everyone got the second chance they deserved? Also do you think Laurel was looking for some kind of second chance when she started looking into her mother's past?
Join Date: 04/12/12
Posts: 294
I thought this was kind of a strange question because I was not thinking about anyone deserving anything. As I was reading, I did question how Dolly could change as much as she did to raise her children with such imagination. The imagination she had was the only think that linked me to the old Dolly. I was surprised when Dolly turned out to be Vivien, but then it all made sense to me. Dolly just wasn't that good of a person, she seemed to have a mental problem, so if it had been her who raised those children and had a loving husband, I would have expected that she had redeemed herself in some way. Jimmy and Vivien deserved to be happy just like anyone else.
Join Date: 06/13/11
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Join Date: 09/07/12
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In real life, I try not to think in terms of what people deserve - no one deserves cancer, mental illness, to lose a child...But this is fiction, so yes, I think that the characters ultimately live the lives they deserve! Not that Dorothy/Dolly deserved to be hit by a bomb, but it's awfully difficult to feel sympathy for narcissists.
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
I think Sallyh's comment that we expect a different moral code in fiction to reality is intriguing. It's obvious, now I think of it, but weirdly not something that I'd ever knowingly chewed over - that, in fiction, there has to be a large degree of people getting their just deserts or we don't feel a satisfaction in the reading, but that we would be rather unpleasant people if we expected such balancing to happen to people in real life!
Join Date: 07/16/13
Posts: 117
I also find Sallyh's comment intriguing. I never thought about it before, but we do sort of read along hoping for a certain outcome. When a book gives me an outcome I don't want, I find that I might not appreciate the book as much until I've had some time to think about it. The book Gone Girl is my perfect example. I love the book, but not exactly the outcome.
Join Date: 06/19/12
Posts: 408
Good point, sallyh. Perhaps because so few people seem to get what they "deserve" (or get what they don't seem to deserve) in real life, it's good to have a fictional world where "right" seems to rule. I sometimes find a really dislike it when the bad guy wins, even if it took a well-told tale to get me to that point. But I'll confess it bothers me more when a bad guy wins than when a good guy loses - or at least doesn't win, so Henry's death was more satisfying than Dolly's was dismaying. (Actually, I guess she wasn't really much of a good guy, as it turns out.)
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