His mother's upright form along the grasses, her hair lit gold, her small hands smoothing her bouquet while the arrow journeyed on" (303). The next week while Pearl was recovering, Beck came home from a short business trip and after a mild fight with Pearl left. He couldn't take it anymore; Pearl had "worn him down." Beck ran away from the same problems that would end up ruining his children.
Pearl, a single mother now, decides to deny to her children that something is wrong. She tells her children that Beck is only away on business and should be back anytime. She intends to not let her children know what happened; she felt she would have to appear strong. She only intends for the best of things for herself and her family now that Beck is gone. Pearl takes on a job cashiering at a local grocery store. She explains this to her children by saying she needs something to fight boredom. Though Pearl thinks that she is doing things right, what she fails to see is that the same things she did to alienate her husband Beck she is now doing to her children. After his mother's death Cody would say that Beck "left them with a raving, shrieking, unpredictable witch" (294). Pearl apparently unknowing to her had a short fuse; she would explode at any moment with a fury of anger at her children. In a moment of rage Pearl once said, "I wish you"d all die, and let me go free, !.
I wish I"d find you dead in your beads." Pearl's anger along with her specific habits shape the future for her children. While her intentions were to be the "perfect mother" she failed to give to her children the one thing that makes a mother perfect, her love.
Cody was the oldest child and probably showed the greatest need for his mother's love. As a small child Cody made the realization to himself that Ezra was the favorite son. In Cody's eyes, whatever he did was not as good as what did Ezra to his mother. Cody often got into trouble and would pin it on Ezra in order to see how his mother would take it.
