Comments on: Anne Brent, Helpmate — part 7

By: jks

jks — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:41:22 +0000

I love it! She did it!
I think it is wonderfully human how much Anne likes Marian. I also think it is awesome how loyal Anne is to Phyllis and is able to see her good qualities when Morris had started to forget them.
The feminist in me is appalled at how many times Phyllis is referred to as little (once) and little mother (twice), if I counted right.
Her concern for Junior seems appropriate to me. I understand that one of the hardest things about having your children get divorced is seeing your grandchildren have to deal with it. Also, over the course of my marriage when things have been a little “tough” it has been my belief in marriage as an institution for the good of my children, not just myself or my husband’s happiness that has gotten me over rough patches. In fact, even during the happy times I daily notice things that I am grateful for like lately since my kids are older “I am glad my daughter has a father who takes an interest in her daily, it makes her far less likely to find an inappropriate boyfriend at a young age” and “I am glad my son has a man around to be a positive example of what it means to be a man it means he is far less likely to become a dead beat dad or get into trouble with the law” or “I’m so glad my husband is around to back me up on doing homework and housework so my kids appreciate education and responsibility.” Sure, it is statistics so you never know which statistic your kid is going to be…..

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:10:48 +0000

This whole serial, but especially this installment, is so unlike anything I would expect to find in a church magazine today. Think if any of the parties — Phyllis as the grieving wife, Marian as the “other woman,” Morris as the straying husband, Anne as the mother-in-law — were to write for the Ensign‘s “Latter-day Saint Voices,” or were to respond to one of those periodic what-would-you-do features. There could be no recognition that Marian was a good woman, one that Anne may have liked better than her son’s wife. There likely would be no advice for Phyllis about winning back her husband, only a “take it to the Lord in prayer” kind of advice. And certainly there would be no patience for Anne’s method. It would all just be “Repent, Morris!” “Break it off now, Morris!” — both of which are necessary, yeah, but they don’t offer much in the way of helping Morris to break it off, much less to turn his affections back where they belong.

There are problems with the philosophy of the story, sure, but I very much like the way this is shown as people working out their problems in the real world (of fiction, admittedly) rather than solely in the theological shadowland of “fast, pray, and read your scriptures and everything will — somehow, we won’t tell you how — work out for you in the end.”

By: SilverRain

SilverRain — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:58:15 +0000

I still want to cry every time I read a new installment.

The interesting thing I find now that the story has developed more is to see how much real power Anne has, despite all the talk about how she doesn’t have power.

It illustrates how much we have come to denigrate the less visible forms of power.

By: kew

kew — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:26:10 +0000

I love that Junior was sitting on the dictionary! I also like that Marion is presented honorably, not as some disagreeable tramp, and that Anne does like her.

By: E. Wallace

E. Wallace — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:19:59 +0000

I find it a little odd that Anne’s determination to save Morris and Phyllis’ marriage seems almost entirely predicated on saving Junior from a life of delinquency.