So far in the novel, Grace, who is now 24, is in prison, and tells the reader the reoccurring dream she has about her past, which is rather confusing since you don't really know what's going on. Grace then says she is a model prisoner, which isn't always easy to be. You then read an exerpt from the Toronto Mirror dated November 23, 1843, and from the Punishment Book of the Kensington Penitentry. The rest is a poem basically summing up what happens for the rest of the novel. After this, it returns to Grace, who currently works at the govenors' home in the penitentry, and talks about the women that come to visit his wife, and then goes on to say that when she reads things about herself in the newspaper, she says they are lies, and not true. Basically, one could say this sets up the background for the story that is going to take place.
To me, some themes that begin for form are that of innocence in terms of, "Did she do it? Or didn't she?" This comes more into question when Grace says that what the newspapers say about her are a lie. Also the themes of fairness as well. Is what happened to Grace fair in terms of her part in the murders? So far, this question can't be answered since I'm not far enough to answer that. Also there is the theme of "love" if you could call it that, or better yet, lust. So far in the poem in the 2nd chapter it talks about Nancy Montgumery and Thomas Kinnear having a relationship, while Grace, who was jealous, and James McDormmat, who liked her also, probably was used for sexual favours in order to kill Thomas and Nancy. I believe the author right away introduces these themes since she wants to captivate the readers attention; since there is obviously more to them then just what's on the surface.
Thus far, my only secondary sources have been the wikipedia, which is rather devoid of any good information save the most basic information.
"Out of the gravel there are peonies growing." Chapter 1, Page 1
This is the first line in the first chapter of the novel. This sentence reminds me that out of something ugly, something good can happen. After all, what's so good looking about dirt? Nothing really, I suppose. Yet the peony can be something very lovely. At a certain point, when I hit rock bottom at my old high school, I didn't think anything good could come out of it.
In Gr. 11, I was friends with this guy, so we'll just call him John Doe. I also had a group of female friends too, and the so-called "leader" was a girl we'll call Jane Doe. John and Jane never really were friends when I met them both. After all, it was because of me they started as friends anyway. Jane became more and more jealous of my friendship with John, so she would do anything to make me feel like dirt. It wasn't long until she completely alienated me from my group of friends, and then I was basically friendless. It was that way for a long time, even after Jane and John began to date. However, I would like to thank Jane. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have learned how to show true compassion and kindness to people. I learned how
not to treat people since she treated everyone like they were very simplistic, and made them feel horrible about themselves. So thank you, Jane Doe, because you treated me and everyone else so horribly, you showed me how to be a better person!
