In The Visibles, by Sara Shepard, the main character Summer has a very interesting and special relationship with her father. Her father is a man who becomes trapped in a downward spiral of depression and mental sickness after his wife (Summer's mother) deserts him with Summer and her brother, Steven. She wants him to have a good life, but gets nervous when he gets too happy. I think this is because she is scared of going back to way life was when her mother was around. Life when her mother was around was so frighteningly good that Summer is scared to feel a feeling that is burrowed so deep inside. An example of this is when her father fell in love with a nurse at the mental hospital and planned to move in with her, Summer questioned the move. Her father was in a fragile condition, but he was getting better because he met Rosemary (the nurse). Still, Summer didn't really want them to have a relationship because the exhilarating yet terrible feeling of happiness would resurface and cause all new kinds of change for Summer. Another display of Summer's relationship with her father is that even though she gets nervous when he gets happy, she is fiercely protective of him. When her father was getting electroshock therapy for his mental illness, a bunch of rowdy men were playing basketball beneath the building where the treatment was being administered, and Summer was able to hear all the vulgar and raucous shouting. She then visualized herself walking downstairs into the basketball court and shouting at the men for disturbing her father. She imagines cracking one of the men's skull open and just watching the blood trickle into the concrete. She feels like she is the only person her father has left and thus, she has to take care of him. These are two out of many examples of Summer's fascinating relationship with her father.
Firstly, Summer has an interesting relationship with her father because even though she wants her father to have a good life and be happy, she gets really frightened when he gets too happy. An example is when her father found himself falling for a woman who took care of him at the mental hospital he stayed at and ends up moving in and starting a new life with her, Summer disapproves. "'I-we-decided today. I've asked her to come with me.' I laughed. 'What, as your nurse?' It just slipped out. A stiff silence followed. 'I'm sorry,' I backpedaled. 'I just... I don't quite understand. This is all a little sudden. I mean, what, you couldn't have just met the person- she's, what, an aide?- more than a month ago, right? That's the last time we really talked. Don't you think it's a little soon?'" This piece of textual evidence showed me that Summer also believes that her father is simply incapable of being happy, and even loving another person. I believe Summer acts like this because she, herself, is scared of things being happy and being okay. For most of her life, she wasn't okay. Her mother left the house when she was just starting out adolescence and she never saw her again. This feeling has become so unfamiliar and strange that it has burrowed deep down inside of her, afraid to let a decade of complex emotions just rush out like an ocean. If her father was happy, that would automatically make her happy, and that would cause her whole entire life to be simply flipped upside down.
Another example of how Summer and her father's relationship is so intriguing is because Summer can be very overprotective of him at times. Like I said previously, Summer is sort of terrified of her father being happy, yet he is her father so she can be extremely protective of him. An example of this is when her dad is undergoing electroshock treatment for his depression because all the medication he took never seemed to work. On the sidewalk in front of the building where the treatment is being given, there are a group of plebeian men playing basketball in the heat. They are being very vulgar and rude, and Summer has this huge vision of her hurting the men. "...I pictured the brick hitting his head and cracking it open. I saw him falling awkwardly, a pool of blood running from his head, his greasy face contorted, the other men flocked around him." I feel this is because her and her father are the only two people they've really got. Her mother left, her brother is often absent in an attempt to get away from his messed-up family life, and her distant family in Cobalt, Pennsylvania barely cares about them anymore. They are attached to each other, and because of this no matter what, they will never stop loving each other.
In conclusion, I found Summer's relationship with her father to be the most fascinating in the entire book. It was so dynamic and incredible that it moved me greatly. Summer won't let anyone really mess around with her father, yet when it comes to his happiness, it's questionable. But often, the way Summer acts is deeply psychological. She won't let her father of herself be happy because it will flood her with feelings that she had thought she'd forgotten. That would cause an absolute mess, bringing back 10 years of anguish and sorrow, so Summer obviously does not want to do that. She is protective of her father because he is the only person who will stay by her side no matter what. Everybody else has ostracized them, and they only have each other. But all in all, I enjoyed the book and I especially enjoyed the relationship between Summer and her father.
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