Did anyone else here think the mother was nasty??? (spoiler)

Francie does know that her mother is a good woman,a good person there any number of times in the book that shows this.It's also interesting to note that Francie favors her father over her over her mother even though she know it's her mother that keeps them going just as Katie favors Neely.The book is far better at showing the different sides to Katie it is a must read.Katie can be too hard at times but she tries too be good and sometimes sees that she has shortchanged Francie and Sissy and maybe Johnny as well.I do think Johnny as much as I like him is such a dreamer that Katie had no choice she had to be the pragmatic tough one in the family given their circumstances the book is good at showing how sometimes Johnny is a bit too irratating in his too dreamy ways-and this comes from a devout daydreamer!
I too wish Evy had been in the movie.

I would love to find new or nearly new copy-I found my well worn one at the city dump!Back to the Nolans the movie really dosen't show how bad things are for them if not for Katie they simply would not have made it and Johnny though I love the character and felt he was a kind and caring man the movie really tilts in his favor too much so I think.He drinks but they don't show all the little and not so little moments when Johnny notions of a grand life only brings the family circumstances down even more and Katie just keeps at it.There are many smaller moments when Katie shows that she really doee care about the children equally even though her love and attention is more on Neely.The hot chocolate passage in the book says alot about Katie and how she feels about her children.Sissy's life is also much more interesting then we see in the movie.I think this is one that really needs to be remaid maybe by HBO.

I just saw the movie for the first time last night. No one knows what it's like being married to someone like Johnny unless you are. Knowing you can't rely on his income, not knowing when he is going to come home drunk, having him blow money on something frivolous. I think Katie overcompensated. Unfrotunately, she just couldn't take her husband's good nature and enjoy that part of him. She labelled him a loser, and you know that broke his heart. That's why he sort of turned his back on her. She was the one he could count on then she lashed out at him. Francie, like a lot of young girls, idolized her father despite his flaws. She wanted big dreams and to think past her life. Neely, as shown in the last scene, was actually pretty content with the family's situation. But it was the dad who made her dream of going to the other school come true. But I think her mom did see at the end that it is good to give in sometimes and do something frivolous, like going to the ice cream parlor and leaving a nice tip. Some occasions are worth it.

If you don't read the book, you don't get the full impact of just how poor this family was. Seeing your children go hungry because their father can't hold a job because of his drinking would make you "hard" too. She loved Johnny, but couldn't depend on him.

Being able to depend on your husband is something hard wired into the need of a wife, especially if there are children in the family. Katie accepted from early on that she was going to have to be the one to support and lead the family.

Those of us living in the USA in the 21st Century have no idea what it must have been like to like on nickles and dimes. Using 6 loaves of bread to base an entire week of meals on. To play a game pretending to be North Pool explorers who are out of food, because they really are out of food.



"I can't sit down. These aren't my pants."

Exactly, Kieselguhr. That family would not have survived with two dreamers. Being hard is not being nasty. Francie did not hate her mother, and as she got older she would understand better why her mom was the way she was.