Brief Summary: The Death Of Delores

The death of a loved one can impact an individual in many ways. When Delores’ mother is killed by car after arguing with Delores, pleading for her to go to college and then working a night shift, Delores becomes overcome with guilt because she feels that she was responsible for her mother’s death as well as Rita’s miscarriage. In chapter 9, Delores says that she feels she deserve this pain because she was a common factor within both occurrences. In a prospective national US study on the deaths of parents and the psychological and physical well-being of the children, studies show that the death of a mother is ‘associated with lower levels of psychological wellness’ for the children. This is more apparent with the mother to daughter relationship …show more content…
Based on the description Kippie gave for Dante, Delores’ roommate that was exchanging mail with Dante in the past, saying he’s a good man who is trying to not be like his father who was a womanizer, Delores felt that it was fate that she found him again through these means. She believed that he would not be like the previous men in her life, as Jack and her father hurt her tremendously. Delores then went on to travel to stalk Dante and inorganically create a relationship with him. As she finds her attempt successful, she creates a narrative for herself in which she is a watercolor artist and hides the fact that she had gone through a rough time through a mental institution. She does this because she does not believe anyone could love her previous self and so she could be with the man she believes fate had led her to. However, Dante doesn’t prove to be the amazing man Delores expected. At first, Dante was a very calm, level-headed man who respected the wishes of Delores. But then, after Delores became the general housewife for Dante, he shows he is quite a condescending person and he proves to be disinterested in a marital relationship, as he just uses Delores as a maternal …show more content…
After several years of therapy and experiencing a toxic one-sided relationship firsthand, Delores goes to live by herself, later moving in with Roberta to care for her and keep each other company. While still unsure of her life and the future, as many humans are, she realizes she can live independently without a man, so she goes back to community college and does her best to get a degree. She meets a man named Thayer that is also ‘damaged goods’ with a hard past so she can relate. Despite his advances toward her, she shuns him out because her previous relationships made it so she doesn’t trust anyone to be as good as they portray themselves and through empirical knowledge, she deduces one cannot be happy in a marriage. She finally ends up accepting Thayer, but instead of having a relationship she asks him to put a baby inside her, as she only has a limited amount of time before experiencing menopause. Throughout her life, she has been through the deaths of at least three babies and she just wants one to make it through and atone for the deaths of the others. Thayer denies her request until she marries him because she is guided by her old friend Mr. Pucci that this may be true love. They attempt many times to have a baby, even attempting the surgical procedural