Willa is a woman whose submissiveness has allowed people to take advantage of her. Willa’s childhood was tumultuous because of her mother’s erratic and sometimes abusive behavior and her father’s passive enabling. Despite this, Willa thinks the world of her father and takes after him in her own passivity. Willa also has a strong desire for family. She craves closeness with her sister, Elaine, and later with her sons and then Denise and Cheryl.

Willa’s dynamics with those close to her are often strained or one sided, however, because of her passivity and her desire to not be like her mother. When raising her two sons, Sean and Ian, Willa “had tried her best to be a good mother—which to her meant a predictable mother” (93). Willa never wants her sons to worry about her mood, and “she was the only woman she knew whose prime objective was to be taken for granted” (93). Willa feels happy to be needed, but because she never makes her sons or sister feel like she needs them in return, the family becomes estranged. As adults, Willa’s sons show little concern for her.

Her first husband, Derek, often disregards her concerns and desires.