The Beet Queen

“She was a candle that gave no warmth. My heart froze. I had no love for her. That is why, by morning, I allowed her to hit the earth.”

After Adelaide abandons Mary and her siblings, Mary decides to cope with the trauma by imagining that her mother has died in a plane crash. It is easier for her to imagine her mother dead—especially given that Mary’s metaphor above reveals Adelaide’s lack of warmth, at least for her daughter—than to wish for her return.

“Already my mind was working on what revenge I would exact from her, and already I was way ahead where getting even was concerned, because Sita never saw me clearly until it was much too late.”

Mary believes that Sita is taunting her about the empty box that was supposed to contain Adelaide’s jewelry. In fact, while Sita does feel sorry for Mary in this instance, she is also jealous of Mary, so the empathy is complicated by feelings that Mary deserves some sort of comeuppance—especially given that Sita has had to sacrifice her clothes and some of her space for Mary. This ambivalence on Sita’s part reveals the seeds of a mutual resentment that will only grow over time.

“A few weeks later, when she knew her way around town, she got some jeweler to drill a hole through one end of the lucky piece. Then she hung the cow’s diamond around her neck on a piece of string, as if it were something valuable.”

Sita’s observation not only speaks to the rivalry between Mary and Sita but also foreshadows Sita’s later actions. Sita wanted the cow’s diamond for herself, but her father refused to give it to her, instead choosing to bestow it on Mary. Sita’s jealousy will later propel her to take Mary’s nearly empty box and use the pawn ticket to retrieve Adelaide’s garnet necklace, without ever telling Mary about it or passing it on to her.