The death of little Kevin was devastating to her. Lastly, she was a wife to two terrible men who tried to call themselves husbands, but the problem was one of them didn't care and the other cared too much.

Jenny had a reoccurring blatant role conflict throughout the novel. A blatant role conflict is something that happens when two or more roles that people are playing everyday make blatant opposing demands. Jenny struggles terribly with her roles of mother and wife, conflicting largely at two points in the books. In the beginning of the book she decided that instead of being a single mother in New York, she would move in with Erich and become his wife, because she thought it would be better for the girls. She thought that it would be better because she would not have to work and could spend more time with the girls. Also with the money Erich had they would not have to worry about financial problems. At the end on the novel she was conflicted by her roles as mother and wife, again. She was not sure if she and Erich could resolve their problems, or if she would have to move before something might happen to her, her daughters and her son. Eventually, she could no longer deal with Erich's controlling behavior and decided to go back to New York. Erich foiled her plans and he took the girls to punish her. A subtle role conflict is not so obvious and it often happens everyday, it's basically just changing roles from one role to another, depending on the situation. Jenny clearly showed this when she had a very hectic day at work, then quickly rushed over to Mrs. Curtis' house to pick up Beth and Tina. She went from tired hard worker, to warm loving mother.

Jenny and Erich's marriage seemed to be made in heaven, but nothing was further from the truth. The Erich Jenny fell in love with was just a persona that Erich produced, not really "perfect" at all. She was yet another victim of Erich's life of deceit. Consequently, Jenny MacPartland's marriage was like a long tumultuous journey through hell, but she prevailed and survived with only the loss of one tiny soul, which may have been saved, if she had only escaped earlier.

pay the ultimate consequence by taking his life.

Sanctions were used many times in the novel. A sanction is a positive or negative action that would be induced after an initial action to help with teaching. Erich was the main user of sanctions in the novel because he was the one trying to shape everyone around him and his rules. The one of only a few positive sanctions or rewards found in the novel came from Erich showering Jenny and her daughters with gifts for being with him. Erich used a negative sanction or a rather harsh punishment with Joe. Randy was Joe's little puppy and Erich didn't mind him having him, as long as he didn't get out and scare the horses. One day Randy got loose and Joe was out looking for him when he came upon Jenny, Tina and Beth who were out on their daily walk and they joined the search. Just as they saw him, two shots were fired from the woods and killed Randy. Erich used it as a punishment to Joe, and a warning to Jenny not to get too close with the help. Erich severely punished Jenny by taking her only two daughters from her because he found out about her plans to leave him. He knew that would hurt her most and he planned it out perfectly, so she would have no clue what had happened to them. That exemplified his sadistic side, how he liked to watch people suffer for things they had done to him.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Erich Jenny, Randy Erich, Jenny Jenny's, Erich Krueger, Beth Tina, Howard Becker, Erich Erich's, Jenny Erich, Jenny Joe, Randy Joe's, green nightgown, beth tina, erich broke, role conflict, blatant role conflict, deviant character, erich's father, mother wife, secretly deviant, erich jenny, hockey stick, randy joe's little, erich's deviant behavior, deviant character erich, wore green nightgown,
Approximate Word count = 3108
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)