fall on your knees

A family either plays a positive role in one’s life leading to their success, or a negative role leading to failure. The love and concern from a family is very important in determining the prosperity in life of its members, and without this support, a person will only face adversity. In Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald, the Piper family, primarily the father, is responsible for the sorrowful life of the Piper daughters. The disappointment in life of Frances, Kathleen and Mercedes is due to lack of love and nurture, inadequate parenting and over protectiveness.
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...

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...ld 138). After getting raped by her own father, Kathleen had no desire of living anymore. She left her soul in New York where she was living her dream life in freedom. Materia knew that Kathleen preferred to die, so she did the necessary during her delivery and allowed the babies to live. “James is slowly dismantling his daughter’s lives and breaking them down so they feel worthless. He is the perfect example of what madness and jealousy can do within a family”.(Marissa blogger.com). Simply in a fit of jealousy that someone touched his Kathleen, whom he thought of as his possession; he fails her career and her lifelong dream of singing. Therefore, the father of the family is responsible for ruining his daughter’s life because of his own madness and jealousy. This consequently leads to her early death and unsuccessful life that was spent according to his commands.