ESSAY of a Novel: Night Cries by Thelma Mariano


 
         



            I don’t really enjoyed the story of Night Cries by Thelma Marino because the plot went boring for me. The main character of this story was two separated sisters that takes a long time to meet. The story presented by the third person omniscient point of view that explained about feelings, memories and emotions of both the two separated sisters: Erica and Lindsey. Both of the characters had to faced a tough life. The author put phsycological conflict in this story but it doesn’t really bring my emotions into it because there is some conflict that left unclear explanation. Such as when Erica got fired on her job and she got anonymous threat after that.
            Night cries story started by showing up the life of the older sister, Erica who is a successful journalist of The Chicago Times newspaper. Erica got a briliant career that she loved but her love-life was not as good as her career because she had to date a married guy named Philip that she met at fitness center. “Anything was better than thinking of him with his wife and family” – (on chapter two) I kinda hate Erica for dating Philip because she wasn’t supposed to date a married guy, like why should she choose him instead of just open her heart for the single guys out there?
            While Erica was having a good carrier as a journalist, her long-lost sister, Lindsey doesn’t have a job but she has a husband that running a restaurant business that is about to sink. She has been married long time enough but she doesn’t feel happy because she can’t give her husband any children and her husband blame her past about this, though actually he knows that this is about him that have weak sperm. “And Kurt had blamed her, as if the tentacles of her past could reach into her present life..” (on chapter four). Feeling bad of Lindsey in here because she can’t do anything but blaming herself for not being able to have children with her husband.
            Both of the characters haunted by their dark past. They had experienced sex abused that left them in imprint of a real pain. Their stepfather started to use them for gambling after their mother died. Erica was the first victim. She was 14 years old when Richard, her stepfather trade her to some old man in his gambling game while Lindsey was 10 years old that time, she barely know anything about her stepfather and she didn’t know about the gambling until two years later her sister ask her to runaway with her from Richard and told her that he’s not a good father after all. But Lindsey didn’t want to go because she believed that Richard could take a good care of her. “I don’t belive you. Dad would never do anything to hurt us.” (chapter two)
            Richard started to trade Lindsey and life gets tougher for her that she end up joining a prostitute busniness and addicted to drugs. Her life was in a totally mess after Erica left her alone with their cruel stepfather. I feel really bad for the character of Lindsey that she had to joined a prostitute business unlike her sister that still be able to take a college of journalist and live a better life. Plus Lindsey has dyslexia disorder that makes her can’t even read words and dropped out from high school. “I barely got through primary and had to dropped out of high school.” (chapter nine)
            Erica and Lindsey live a contrast life but they still had to faced a hard life by the problems that come to them. The author mostly tell about Erica’s life problem but it explained kinda monotonous and a bit rushed in the end for me. The fact that Erica couldn’t solved her problems but she just runaway, leaving Chicago and stay at a little town named Seven Falls and then she got pregnant by her one night stand guy.
“We know you were heart-broken in Chicago, but doesn’t he deserve to know?” Erica shrugged, not knowing what to say. At least she was certain about Dave.” (capter twenty-five)
            When I read the story I kinda expecting about how both of them would meet or else I’m guessing will Erica found out that her sister was actually already died because the genre itself says this novel was thriller, and Kurt as Lindsey’s husband has a bad temper since his business went sink and he started to commit violence to her morover after he knew that Lindsey has another man she loved behind him. “You were a whore when I met you, and you are still a whore. Maybe it’s time I treated you like one.” (chapter twenty-nine).
            In the end, the sisters finally met, thanks to the investigator that Erica’s been hired to find Lindsey. This is a happy ending story but a bit tragic for that Lindsey should lost her depressed husband, he died by getting shot from the police after he kidnapped Erica’s daughter to get Lindesy back.      Knowing he was already gone, she reached for his cold hand and held it. I could have loved you, if you had only let me breathe” (chapter thirty-three)
           So this story is actually about sex-abused that the character had been through but the way they resolved it was not really clear. Erica as a journalist tried to write about this with some other women’s experiences to rise more wome’s attention about the sexual abused but sadly she got sabotage with maybe her co-worker and this thing in the contrary lead her down and got fired on her job and what makes me don’t really like about Erica’s character is that she wasn’t really fight to solved her problems and find who sabotage her and go on campaigning on sexual-abused warning. While on the other hand, Lindsey tend to stay with her toxic husband that cannot controlled his emotions, not really trying to get away from him until she got violence and at the end she found her sister. But one thing that I like is the intention of Erica to find her sister was never faded although she was happen to think maybe her sister had been died, but she still put a high hopes to find her the only one family she has, that is Lindsey.

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