CHARACTERS

Emma York Dorian York/ Dory

Jack York Maria

Mrs. Ruby Robinson Frank

Grandaddy (Emma’s father)

SETTINGS

The York’s house

The mall

The train station

SUMMARY OF STORY

Dorian or Dory is the only child of Jack and Emma. She tells the story of the relationships in her family. Dorian and her father do not have a strong relationship and neither do Emma and Jack. The tragedy in the story is that the narrator, Dory loses her mother because of her father’s extramarital affairs. Dory tells of the relationship between her mother and her father as she explains that this is a game. Emma is the “joker” as she is being “played” because she is not aware of the events that take place around her. Emma stays at home and takes care of her family. Her friend and neighbor Ruby Robinson offers her thoughts on the relationship between Emma and Jack. She encourages Emma to pay more attention to her husband so that he will not cheat.  The readers later realize that this was not genuine concern or care as Ruby Robinson already knew that Jack was cheating on Emma. She takes Emma and Dory to the train station where she knows she will see Jack and his lady friend. One could say that Ruby was jealous of the marriage between Jack and Emma as she was a single mother who was trying to raise her child on her own. Ruby believed that Emma was more fortunate and that she had everything that she wanted in her marriage.

Jack is with his lady friend at the train station and Emma sees this scenario. She runs away and into the path of an oncoming vehicle. Emma dies. Dorian does not understand the events that unfold, and she believes that her mother would return. Mrs. Robinson becomes romantically involved with Jack. Maria and Dorian are sent away to boarding school.

CONFLICT

Emma and Jack.

There is a lack of mutual love. Jack’s unfaithfulness to his wife removes the mutual love between the two even though they are married.

RESOLUTION

At the end of the story, the readers see Emma’s death and the two girls (Dorian and Maria) go to boarding school. With these resolutions, the readers feel that good has lost and bad has won. Dory offers a glimmer of hope when she says that she becomes an adult, she will play the game smarter.

THEMES

Innocence

The child narrator (Dory) is naïve. She does not fully comprehend the events in the story and sees these events as the games that adults play. But the readers understand that the extramarital affair is not a game. But is a painful occurrence that speaks to adults being unaware of the hurt they cause others.

Love and Family Relationship

The relationship between mother and daughter is presented from two relationships: Emma and Dorian and Ruby and Maria. The contrast in both stories is clear in the love and care between Emma and Dory and the sense of duty between Ruby and her daughter. Maria prefers to be Emma while the girls play. This suggests that Maria does not see her mother as the ideal parent. The readers can conclude that Maria is unhappy with her mother and that she is exposed to a harder life than Dory. She knows of the adult “game” that Jack plays because Ruby does not guard her words around her daughter. One can also question the ideals of the family as Cole presents the instability of the nuclear family and the challenges of the single-parent family as a contrast to the functions of the family.

Friendship

Dorian and Maria

Ruby and Emma.

The innocence and care in the children’s friendship differed from that of the adults. Ruby is not a sincere friend even though Emma treats her with more respect. Still, Emma refers to Mrs. Robinson as a green-eyed monster and Ruby is envious of Emma’s life.

Maria and Dorian share a bond that even though they experience differences in their opinions and thoughts, they maintain a friendship where they share ideas with each other.

Childhood Experience

The story occurs during the narrator’s childhood and as such this theme is also relevant. The readers see the changes in Dory as the story progresses and the ways that these changes impact her resolve to be different from her parents when she becomes an adult.

Dishonesty and deception

The theme is important to the development of the plot as Jack’s infidelity makes him deceptive. Ruby Robinson is also deceptive and dishonest as she keeps Jack’s infidelity a secret. Dorian’s conflict arises as she too knows of the lady at the train station and yet she does not share this with Emma. Dorian wants to tell her mother the truth because she believes that in this “game” she should take her mother’s side. Mrs. Ruby Robinson is dishonest as she pretends to care about Emma’s interest as she advises Emma to either have another baby or ensure that she accompanies Jack when he goes away. But she is jealous of Emma and the life that she has with Jack and Dorian.

Motifs

Game – this appears throughout the story as the story is told from a child’s perspective. The children see the life of adults as play and their common game includes role-playing the women in their lives. In the end, Dorian tells Maria ‘I learned a lot about this game. When it’s our turn to play, we’ll play smarter.’

SYMBOLS

The name Jack symbolizes Jack in a deck of cards. Jack York is a player and knows how to use his cards to win the game. Emma carries the joker in her purse, and this is symbolic as she is the loser in the game. The joker presents an element of chance in a game of cards. She keeps the card in her purse hidden because similarly, the truth of Jack’s infidelity is hidden.

The joker also symbolizes the hypocrisy of Mrs. Robinson and Jack. They are two-faced and they deceive others throughout the story.

The train station symbolizes arrivals and departures. Emma arrives at the knowledge of her husband’s infidelity and departs this life when she dies.