Why do you think Clair and Molly made the choices they did?

Clair chose to leave with Wesley after Dennis's confrontation with him, and Molly chose to stay nearby Scott's father while he was in prison. Why do you think these women made the choices they did? 

It was kind of sad that the fortunes of the women in the novel seem to be so intricately tied with the men in their lives. I am not really sure they had any other choice but to follow the ones they committed to. At least Molly is professionally trained as a nurse. Not sure what Claire's options would have been.

I'm not sure I understand either of their choices. I can't, as a mother, imagine myself leaving my underage child to fend for themselves even considering what Dennis did was terrible. He was still a child. Molly's choice was not good for Scott either and he ended up dead. I am not sure what they were thinking. Hope someone here helps me to understand.

Can a woman be so involved in her struggle to cope with events involving her partner that her children become afterthoughts? Clearly Scott couldn't understand his mother's choices. Throughout this whole book didn't you just want to scream Communicate?

I agree Caroler - although I also wanted to yell at them "What were you thinking?!?!" I can't imagine a woman putting her husband's needs in front of her child's.

I think they both felt they wouldn't be able to find anyone else if they left their husbands. I certainly couldn't understand; especially Claire - what normal woman would leave her teenage son to fend for himself? Since she only lived four hours away, why did she only visit him for two weeks a year? Wouldn't social services have gotten involved, or did the uncle take over as a guardian?

This is one of the things that enraged me when I first read the book - two mothers who chose their faulty husbands over their young sons. We know more about Claire, though, and we are able to see that she felt that Dennis would be able to cope on his own with the help of his aunt and uncle while Wes was so damaged that he needed her to exist. We don't know very much about Molly's motivations. One of the great things that works in the novel is that Wes realizes how his decisions AND Claire's decisions impacted Dennis in a negative way.