On page 273, Annie realizes that if she expects to be forgiven, she must "forgive indiscriminately" from now on. Which characters, besides Annie, seek forgiveness? Which characters are ultimately redeemed, and which, if any, are not?
Created: 01/08/16
Replies: 7
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
On page 273, Annie realizes that if she expects to be forgiven, she must "forgive indiscriminately" from now on. Which characters, besides Annie, seek forgiveness? Which characters are ultimately redeemed, and which, if any, are not?
Join Date: 02/18/15
Posts: 499
Annie certainly seeks forgiveness and would love to have her family back together again. She goes to London to explain her life to Robbie, and hopefully will find forgiveness. Jonathan is making an attempt to reunite the family. I see him as being redeemed. Emme has been so emotionally damaged, but is receiving help and hopefully she will be able to forgive Annie, for what she sees as the destruction of her mother and father. Patrick seems so lost in himself that I don't know that he feels he needs any forgiveness. Annie will have to forgive herself before she can make peace with Jonathan and Robbie.
Join Date: 09/16/11
Posts: 165
It would take me a long time to forgive Annie. She takes no responsibility for her actions as evidenced by seeking out Patrick in London as an adult. All of the adults have a long way to go to find redemption.
Join Date: 03/03/12
Posts: 251
I have to agree with Retired Reader, NE. I think Emme seeks understanding, if not forgiveness through her uncle's letter. I wonder how Annie's daughters are going to view her actions once they are old enough to understand what happened. I think her son will seek to forgive her, but wonder if he will really be able to do so.
Join Date: 12/15/15
Posts: 19
Annie, Johnathan and Robbie all seek forgiveness for different reasons and I think that Johnathan will ultimately be redeemed for not admitting when he found out that Robbie was not his son. Robbie seeks forgiveness for his actions with Emme the hurt he caused and I think ultimately will be redeemed. However, Annie will be forgiven for actions as a young adult but ultimately I do not think she will be redeemed for going to London seeking out Patrick and for all the hurt she has caused her family. Emme is mentally disturbed and therefore I do not believe that she is capable of forgiving herself and I am not sure Robbie will totally forgive her either.
Join Date: 01/31/13
Posts: 110
I think Annie is the hardest character to forgive and her actions created consequences that she could not care about until they negatively impacted her. Considering her independence in leaving for England, she certainly was not very mature in her actions. Her selfishness was far greater than a youthful discretion or two. She left a wake of victims without even knowing it.
Join Date: 08/16/11
Posts: 79
I agree with alisonf. Annie is definitely the hardest character to forgive. And really, she was so ready to forgive herself that I'm not sure she cared if anyone else forgave her. I found her to be irresponsible and unlikable both as a young person and as a mature adult, and she definitely seemed self-deluded in terms of the damage she had done to others during both stages of her life.
Emme's attempt at redemption seemed pretty halfhearted. It would have been more believable if she had written the letter herself.
Jonathan was more sinned against than sinning, so I didn't really feel that he needed redemption. I thought it was interesting that he actually said "It was my fault" when referring to Robbie's disappearance, but I don't recall a single instance when Annie said "It was my fault" about anything. She was all about deflecting blame, whereas Jonathan was trying to take responsibility for his actions (or inactions).
Join Date: 03/13/12
Posts: 564
I enjoyed the surprise of finding out to whom Emme is related (though I was suspicious from the start.) Although I do not condone Emme's actions, I can understand her basic motivation but also feel that there is some mental imbalance there. I admire Jonathan for sticking to his role as the father and feel that he is redeemed. As for Annie - lots of people make mistakes in life. However, I lacked sympathy for her since she went back to England and seems to care more about recapturing a moment in her youth instead of going forward. Then again, that's what makes this story...
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