Maime Trotter’s Home as Gilly’s Refuge: the Role of family in the Development of a Person’s Character
A home that is run by the obese and amiable Maime Trotter is a very thematically significant setting that made the novel more poignant. It is where Gilly developed her personality and perspectives in relation to people and life in general. Also, it is where she encountered ‘real’ people who are indirectly similar to her. The struggles of the people who are inside that house are perpendicularly connected with the lessons she would learn all throughout.
In general, a home is where a child primarily develops his/her character. As similar to the novel, Maime Trotter’s house was the setting for Gilly’s character metamorphosis. This is the place wherein Gilly changes her perception of people, of loving and of family. For Gilly, she hates the world because of her preconceived supposition that the world and the people around will not be fond of her. However, everything gradually changes when Gilly realized that the place where she was into was the venue for her rollercoaster ride that will lead to the most important lessons that she will learn.
The house of Maime Trotter opened the eyes of Gilly on the realities of life. She found a family in this place. Traditionally, family being the basic unit of every given society is the most influential component of social institution. Family counts because it is where people start – it shapes us, nurtures us, and quite possibly exasperates us more than any other group we know. Families are complex systems – basic, nuclear or expanded, and transnational in nature. They can provide some of the most challenging situations we ever face. It is also believed that a family is the core avenue and an essential channel for learning process that will be the basis of such attitude and behavior pattern of an individual and how he responds to certain changes in the society (Anderson 4; Bryceson and Vuorela 3; Rueter and Runner 73). It is here where everything begins. In Maime Trotter’s home, she found a family that paved way to other changes that happened all throughout her being.
When Gilly stayed in Maime Trotter’s house, she felt that she is loved. For love is powerful, Maime Trotter’s manifestation of love within the four corners of the house moved Gilly from her antagonist to protagonist point of view. Loving is the major emotional characteristic of human. Humans love because of affection, relation, and reason. The expression of love is regardless of how a person shows it. Loving is sacrificing, giving and remains unconditional. The strength of loving lies on the belief of someone on how much she/he loves a person. People love because they feel it. When Gilly felt the love of Maime Trotter, she tried to resists it. But since love is powerful, she was helpless. She was flashed towards the repatriating effects of the world’s most wonderful emotion. People just need to be true to the desires of the heart in congruence to the mind in order to experience real love. The novel proved the aphorism – “love moves every thing in its own mysterious ways”.
The strength of giving love as experienced by Gilly in Maime Trotter’s home is certain. It lies to the intention of the heart and mind. Clear and honest motives are best expressed by the actions of the heart like Maime Trotter. On the aspect of receiving love, the love we give is the love we receive. In the house of Maime Trotter, Gilly found a refuge – a place where she longs to be with accepted, loved, and evolved for the good.
Reflection
The Great Gilly Hopkins entered my perennial being. The novel was very striking on my part as I empathize with the situation and feelings of Gilly. The retaliation and other negative behaviors of Gilly are expected to a child who longs for a parental attention or a ‘real’ family. I am a part of a ‘broken’ family as my parents divorced before my second birthday. Like Gilly who was abandoned by her mother, I was kind of ‘abandoned’ by my father. My biological father – Sam, only showed up to visit three times before my seventh birthday. He never called or wrote at all. All my childhood years, I hoped, dreamed and prayed that he would come back and be a dad to me. I am certain that this is also the aspiration of Gilly – for her mother to get her and be a mom to her. For a parent neither a mother nor father is an indestructible link to an individual’s existence. There is something missing when anyone of them is not directly involved to your life.
Then, my mom remarried when I was seven years old. My stepfather was everything a father should be and more to both me and my sister. I can compare him to Maime Trotter – a more than willing person who can sustain all the things that Gilly need. Even though there is no genetic relationship with me and my stepfather, l felt that he loved me and accepted me. Maime Trotter was so kind to Gilly. She is actually like my stepfather who gave unconditional affection to me and my sister.
Indeed, the novel as well as the experiences of Gilly in particular affected my views on life and living. There are some things that will never be the same again. Like Gilly, I was open to try everything in order to get noticed. When I was young, I cannot appreciate things for I was clouded by the thought that only my father can make things worth appreciating. I tended to ignore better things and people around me. I always try to resist. Then, my biological father – Sam resurfaced when I was 12 and attempted to gain full custody of me and my sister because the DA went after him for child support. It was then that I learned that at times, he was less than two hours away from us and did not bother to call. He made me feel like I was worth less than 50 cents – about the price of a phone call. With this thought, I was really hurt. But then again, I can no longer bring things back on the ways they are used to be. All I can do is to face the reality and truth. As for Gilly, she can no longer bring back her mother’s presence. All she has inside her is the pain of letting go. As for me, I let my father go as he died the night before Father’s Day of this year for being an alcoholic.
All throughout the novel, I can relate to the emotional dilemmas, rational debates, physical and mental apprehensions, as well as the overall meaning of life on the eyes of Gilly. My Dad (stepfather) made me feel as if I was/am priceless like Maime Trotter to Gilly. With this novel, I learned that there is no use holding back to past that will restraint me to move forward. All I can do is to move ahead as life goes on no matter what. My personal experience made me more inclined and empathic to the novel. Some circumstances like personal judgment and the old selfish knowledge influences and hinders me. However, I believe that people change. And eventually, my beliefs will be change to better ones as I experience “realties in life” and reach my maturity and potentialities within myself. This is important to me as a person because it may help me to accept people’s exceptional characteristics and use it to build better and more harmonious relationship with them.
Lastly, family and love is equivalent. However, there are things that cannot be controlled. Gilly helped me look at the word and at myself in new ways. Now, I would like to celebrate my coming years with greater understanding and explore things with the virtues evident to the changed ‘Gilly’ within me.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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