“Sharon’s not yet six—exactly five years and ten months. But whatever she does seems to have, at least to her, a kind of purpose.”

Patty longs to have a sense of purpose like Sharon does. For Sharon, purpose lies in everything, even in entertaining herself. Patty is more discriminating about purpose, and when she does find purpose, it often comes with great risks, as in harboring Anton. Patty’s parents adore her younger sister because she is so easy-going. Patty, who raises difficult questions about the world, is an inconvenience for her parents.

“For four days and four nights the two of them have been isolated in the store. The power is down, the oil pipes have burst, and there is no food and no water […] I feed them soup and sandwiches, and when they regain their strength, they tell me how much they love me—how much they have always loved me.”

Patty fantasizes about heroically saving her parents from being stuck in their store during a blizzard. She wants to be able to provide for her parents and thus feel a sense of purpose. Her desire to feed her parents not just food but love is reflected in the risks she must take to get soup and sandwiches to them in the storm. She wants her parents to love her, but she also wants her love for them to be accepted and fully consumed, as in this fantasy.

“‘I wish Patricia would be more particular,’ Mother said with sudden force. ‘Would you just look at that hair?’”

In the first encounter between Patty and her mother in the novel, her mother complains about the topic that she seems to care most about regarding her daughter: her unruly hair. Moreover, she speaks of Patty’s hair as if Patty were absent.