I found the passage on pages 13-14 which spoke of the effects of leaving one's spouse interesting. It was considered shameful for a woman to leave her husband, "to run away from your husband would be a mistake,", it would be a "slap in the face"(13). A woman would be ruined if she left her husband, no circumstances are given in which it might be acceptable, it is simply shameful for a wife to desert her spouse. Nothing is said about the judgments a man would face when he left his wife... but that is what happens in the narrative.
The family faces a great deal of hardship, especially the mother who is suddenly forced to deal with life and support a family entirely on her own. The lack of a paternal figure for that time period had a tremendous effect upon the family. Financial hardship, chaos and changing living quarters were only part of it. Even though she was not the one to leave, the mother in this situation was the one left to deal with the mess. She was the shamed one, suddenly thrust into poverty.
In addition, Estrella was left with a world of questions and uncertainty. Where was her father? Did he regret leaving them? Did "he [think] of them as the mother did of him"? (14). When she finally learned that he was not going to return there was a sudden hole in her life.
Many of the works we have read have dealt with the disruption of family structures. Generally this disruption involves the absence of a male or paternal character. This was seen in Breath, Eyes, Memory, and Bone. I wonder if we were reading more books written by or involving males as the central characters if this would have been different. Would a missing mother create the same level conflict and endanger the familial structure?
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