Dorothy Allison

I had to read through this particular excerpt a few times to really grasp the scenario it was depicting. It is apparently a lower class family, dealing with all sorts of trials and tribulations, and the narrator seems to be the only one that is competent to care for such a dysfunctional family. She describes the difficulties they face, both physically and financially. However, lots of her attention is placed on the children. Also the final two paragraphs give more insight into the narrator's thoughts and emotions. She is the one capable of cleaning up the mistakes of both the children and her sister, the only real competent parent figure in the excerpt, and yet she cannot have children. Furthermore she tells the reader what she would like to say to her sister, but that she won't because it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.