Chapter 4: Numbers

            This chapter had several interesting things going on it. Jeanette’s mother continued to give some questionable answers to questions but also some interesting advice. When Jeanette tells her mother about her nightmare about getting married, she is brushed off. Instead of looking into what could potentially be a developing psychological problem in her child she instead brushes it off. Now given that, I as a reader, am privy to her inner thoughts and know that the dream is likely connected to musings she has on the regular, my opinion will be biased. A parent not knowing those things may be justified in not putting forth a greater amount of care to a seemingly nonsensical random nightmare. Later in the chapter her mother thinks she fancies a boy in the church and gives her advice on the matter. The story that accompanies the advice made me feel bad for her mother and made question if her mother had a figure in her life that she could have gone to for this kind of advice before making a mistake like that. In this instance I think she was being a good mother, even if she misconstrued the situation. The advice she gave her daughter, while not applicable to Jeanette and the boy, was still good advice, “what you think is the heart might well be another organ.” (Winterson 104) This can be even be applied to many thing things outside of heart related matters.

            A scene that interested me in this chapter was when her mother leaves for Wigan for what was supposed to be a few days. “She didn’t come back for three weeks,” (Winterson 67) Jeanette thought. This demonstrated to me, as if the reader doesn’t know at this point, where her mother’s priorities lie. The way the scene plays out makes it seem like there was little to no forewarning about the increased length of time her mother would be away. The scene goes on to describe her Mother’s good business sense. Descriptions of how she managed the churches subscription service and newly designed gifts each year show the importance that was placed on this event. A great contrast to anything to do with Jeanette. The scene moves into a meeting held over the weekend once a year. There Jeanette and her mother with a friend of her mother, who would make most of the wreaths for the Fylde coast. The conversation was interesting because it exposed Jeanette to one way of looking at death, as a business. People live longer now and as her Mother’s friend would say, “No, business isn’t what it was.” (Winterson 68) Her Mother’s friend is more concerned with people never wanting anything new or unique when requesting wreaths. Jeanette shows her helpful nature by suggesting that she make wreaths for weddings but is shot down when her Mother’s friend says they want the same thing as dying people, crosses.