Kaitlyn Weston- chapter two

In chapter two there was one major thing that stuck out to me.  And that is that image is everything!  On page 63, Kristen’s mother drops out of her tea group because she doesn’t want the other mothers to see the chaos, dust and hidden bourbon bottles in her house.  Plus, she was always deciding what to wear and what to serve for food so that the other mothers wouldn’t judge her.  There’s another instance on page 74 where Kristen knows that she can’t tell the neighbors about her parent’s bickering because she has to protect her father’s practice.  As the book continues, Kristen actually states that her mother is keeping up appearances.  “The way she slips off to her room at any sign of trouble and lies on the bed with her eyes closed, saying prayers to herself” (page 85).  Or, as page 110 shows, “She [Kristen’s mother] hopes the neighbors don’t notice the police car in the driveway.”  Kristen knows that her parents are hiding secrets from everyone else, but she still continues to keep it to herself and continues to keep those secrets as well. 
I don’t know why image is so important for Kristen’s family, and community for that matter, but it’s something that I’ve noticed comes up often in this book.  The only one that doesn’t seem to worry about image is Kristen.  She wears what she wants, she doesn’t give into things just to fit in, and she seems to know exactly what she wants in life.