Readers are updated on Brian's emotions and thoughts regarding his family situation throughout the text; however, the narrator does not waste any time letting readers know that Brian's family situation isn't the happy, standard American Dream anymore. Already in chapter 1, readers are told that Brian is struggling with his own emotional fallout brought on by his parents' divorce. The very thought of it almost brings tears to his eyes while he sits in the small plane that will soon crash. Brian describes the word "divorce" as an "ugly" word that conveys fighting, yelling, and lawyers. He sees the divorce as literally tearing down his life:
—and the breaking and shattering of all the solid things. His home, his life—all the solid things. Divorce. A breaking word, an ugly breaking word.
This reaction of his shows readers that his family situation must have been fairly good for awhile because Brian's...
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reaction doesn't convey the idea that the divorce is an overall good thing for everyone involved.
We also know that Brian believes the divorce is his mother's fault. She did something in secret that she tried to keep a secret, and Brian knows what that secret is. Any kind of discovered secret that can end a marriage must be an emotionally difficult secret to keep from anybody let alone family members.
No, not secrets so much as just the Secret. What he knew and had not told anybody, what he knew about his mother that had caused the divorce, what he knew, what he knew—the Secret.
As the reader continues in this chapter, we are told the divorce happened quickly, and Brian considered the entire thing fast and formal. It was filled with rules about visitation, and Brian is left more or less shell shocked. He gets summers with dad and school years with mom, and the two parents no longer speak with each other and live far apart. Brian no longer has a single family situation. He has two separate families now that he has to share time with.