“I lay on the seat of the MacLaughlin-Buick feeling disenchantment begin to set in. Marie would not get out of the greystone inn. She would stay there all her life. The only thing that would ever happen to her was that she would get older.” This totally represents Vanessa’s fears for her own life. She doesn’t want to stay in the brick house her entire life without escape. It parallels the story she’s writing and the story she’s living. It seems like everyone living in the Brick House with Grandfather Connor feels trapped. This is further backed up by her mother and Aunt Edna’s conversation a little bit later in the story, after Wes Grigg asks Edna to go to Winnipeg with her, then the women talk about the possibility of Wes asking Edna to marry her:
“‘...It’s just that it would be wonderful if you could get out.’
‘What about you?’ Aunt Eda said. ‘How are you going to get out?’
‘It’s different for me,’ my mother replied in a low voice. ‘I’ve had those years with Ewen. I have Vanessa and Roddie. Maybe I can’t get out. But they will.’”
“I did not mean this in any critical sense. It made me like him better. There was something solid and reassuring about him, and yet he was the reverse of stern. He was quiet-spoken and never argued, but he laughed a fair amount, especially at his own jokes, which were usually pretty corny, and he did his damnedest to please Aunt Edna.” (Laurence 163). This is at a point where Vanessa is describing Wes Grigg. I think the reason Vanessa likes him so much is because not only does he possess a personality almost completely opposite of Grandfather Connor, but he emulates the gentleness that her father had. Vanessa admires these qualities.
“Aunt Edna hesitated. ‘I guess I’ve got used to being back here in the old dungeon.’” This is even more evidence of how trapped the family feels. She even refers to the Brick House as a dungeon! This points back to the “brick battlements” title as well. We get some imagery of a huge, confining, fortress.
“‘Because,’ Aunt Edna said, and although she was smiling, neither of us took it was a joke, ‘it’ll be your turn then.’” Even more evidence that the legacy of confinement and control is suspected to be passed on to Vanessa, as she fears.
“Enough was enough. I ploughed into the living room and stared at Grandfather I did not speak. I only stared my anger, and he stared his right back. Finally I turned away” This is important because not only do we see how strong of a young girl Vanessa is, we get insight into Grandfather’s characteristics. He’s built up a persona of stoickness, so even when people anger him, it’s short lived because no one wants to go up against him. That’s part of the reason all of his family has tons of pent up anger towards him that turns into bitterness more and more as they are unable to openly communicate with him. By trying to be strong for his family, he’s become tough on them instead of for them.
A super crazy important part of Vanessa’s realization of how she is, is when she goes back to the brick house. “I had not thought it would hurt me to see it in other hands, but it did. I wanted to tell them to trim their hedges, to repaint the window frames, to pay heed to repairs. I had feared and fought the old man, yet he proclaimed himself in my veins.” Woah. Bombshell. Vanessa totally realizes that however hard she may try to hide or suppress it, she is her Grandfathers kin, and his temperament and personality runs through her veins. This is a pivotal moment where she realizes the crazy impact her grandfather has had on her life.
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