The novel deals frankly and openly with the types of abuse children can experience from their guardians and the effects that treatment has on their behavior, personality, and actions. Harvey, Carlie, and Thomas J are abused by their original guardians in a variety of ways, and each of them tries to survive their abuse and neglect in a different way. Children are “entirely dependent upon parents or caregivers for their safety in their environment” (Davis, Shirley. “The Long-Term Effects of Abandonment.” CPTSD Foundation. 25 Feb 2021). When abandonment and abuse compromise that safety, children survive their circumstances by adapting in unhealthy ways.

Harvey has been abandoned by his mother, emotionally abused by his father, and run over by his father’s car while his father was drunk driving. Because of the acute physical mistreatment by his father, Harvey’s perception of his parents has been dictated by something called splitting, “an unconscious defense mechanism that provokes an individual to perceive people in a distorted manner as either ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’” (Leonard, Erin. “What a Relationship With a Parent Reveals About a Partner.” Psychology Today.