2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

Sarah meets with her father for the first time in three years. What did you think of the encounter, including her mother’s role?

At first I thought her father as going to say something truly stupid and blow his chance for a reconciliation. At least he decided to keep his mouth shut and stay off of hot subjects. I'm wondering if Sarah's mother had a talk with him before the visit.

I think Sarah realized her mother had a more powerful role than she’d first given her credit.

What a telling sign of convention that Felix would rather Sarah stay home and do nothing rather than be useful. I was glad when she realized he was a product of their system of rules and the best she could do was to agree to disagree.

In my reading, their meeting was tense beyond measure. Her mother used the same system of rules to be as strong as she could with her husband.

It was a tense meeting, I agree. I think though that it's a sign of just how much Mr. Decker does care about Sarah that he was willing to compromise if it means keeping her in their lives moving forward. I can't really fault a person for having a mindset that is the product of his times. Sarah is the anomaly here, not her parents but that they are all willing to put in some effort for the sake of salvaging their familial relationships speaks a lot about all of them.

I also think Sarah has perhaps had a tendency to think that being a strong woman looks a certain way. Now maybe, through her mother, she realizes that strength can be shown in different ways.

Well said. It’s impossible to ask someone to completely abandon ingrained beliefs and Sarah was astute to realize both that she needed to find middle ground with her father and her mother was more powerful than she credited.

Yes, we saw elsewhere that Sarah's neighbor was a "strong woman," too! :-)

Thanks for the reminder, Veronica.

You have to respect a woman who wields a frying pan with gusto. ;-)

I think underneath all his bluster, Sarah's father loves her and realizes that he has made mistakes, especially considering what happened to her sister. He doesn't want to repeat them and is willing to make the effort.

It helps that Sarah's mother is a smart woman!