Summary Of The Optimist's Daughter By Laurel Mckelva

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Life Goes On The Optimist’s Daughter tells the story of Laurel Mckelva who has previously lost both her husband and mother. She returns to her hometown in Mississippi to be at side of her father as he gets surgery. Complications rise up and end at the death of her father. She stays in her childhood home with her father’s new wife; Fay. When Fay leaves to visit her family in Texas Laurel stays alone at the house and confronts memories of her family who are no longer with her. In this novel the setting in the story is a major factor to Laurel’s ability to move on from the past. Laurel loved her parents as much as any child could love their mother and father but her being an only child made it harder for her to go through two sudden deaths in a short amount of time. Her grieving over her husband as well only made it much harder for her to be happy and move on. When she was left with no family and was stuck with Fay she blamed herself for all the deaths and carried a huge burden for leaving her father alone when he …show more content…

In reality Laurel had many people who were there for her in Mississippi but she was stuck on the idea of her never being able to see any of her few family members again. Laurel was afraid to confront memories of her loved ones but on her last day she was trapped inside her home because of a storm. She visited every room in the house and started remembering all of the great things that happened to her as a child in each room. She touched and reminisced almost every room and object in the house starting with her mother’s sewing room. She finds the twenty-six pigeon holes on her mother’s desk which brings her on to many memories of her mother. As she is confronting all these memories little did she know that it starts a process of discovery towards her mother and

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