A Spark of Light

Picoult uses these chapters to develop Wren’s and Beth’s perspectives on their relationships with their fathers, further underscoring the theme of The Complexities of the Father-Daughter Relationship. Hugh envisions himself protecting Wren, but she also thinks of herself as shielding her father. When she wants to remember to tell him a star fact that he would like, she inks a tiny star on her hand and hides it, even though he always complains that she will get ink poisoning. She thinks, “That’s what you did for people you loved, right? You protected them from what they didn’t want to know” (247). Implied here is her assumption that she is protecting her father by allowing him to imagine that she is still a child and not ready to have sex. Beth, on the other hand, doesn’t tell her father about her pregnancy because she is afraid that he will be angry and judge her. She thinks that even if she kept the baby, “She would still have faced her father’s anger. She would still have been a whore, in his eyes. For all she knew, he would have thrown her out” (293). Though both girls keep knowledge from their fathers, they do it for radically different reasons.

George and Beth’s relationship is revealed explicitly only in this section and only at the moment when George, overcome by rage, leaves his daughter in the emergency room. What he does not realize at the time is that he is also leaving her vulnerable to the criminal justice system. When Beth struggles to explain to Jayla the chain of events that led her to the hospital—information that Jayla needs to know to save Beth’s life—she reveals that she obtained abortion pills illegally because the judge responsible for her case suddenly left town. While Beth’s mind spirals into all the “what ifs” that could have made her situation better—even if it might not have saved her relationship with her father—Jayla makes the decision to alert her husband, a police officer, who comes to arrest Beth. Here, The Personal and Societal Impacts of Abortion clash with each other, as a daughter’s fear of her father’s disapproval sets in motion a series of events that makes her a criminal in the eyes of the law.

Joy, Bex, and Louie also offer different viewpoints on the meanings and emotions surrounding abortion; none of their relationships to it are uncomplicated. Joy knows that she needs to terminate her pregnancy for financial reasons. She will not be able to afford a child, and she must finish her degree so that she can attempt to attain economic stability. Growing up in foster care, she has always felt alone, and this situation underscores her pain and vulnerability. She watches Harriet comfort another patient, asking her if she is sad. Joy thinks angrily that all of them are sad: “What hellish tributary of evolution had made reproduction—and all the shit that came with it—the woman’s job?” (253). She imagines all of the other women in this clinic as “a sisterhood of desperation” (253). Though Joy thinks that she has made the right decision, it is still a painful decision for her.

Louie performs Joy’s abortion in this chapter and thinks about how upsetting the procedure is for many people. Since Joy is 15 weeks along in her pregnancy, the products of conception are “familiar enough to be upsetting” (299). He thinks, “The bottom line was this: a zygote, an embryo, a fetus, a baby—they were all human” (299). It is important for Louie, personally, not to shy away from the moral questions as well as the upsetting parts of what he does. He sees the dilemma not as “When does a fetus become a person? but When does a woman stop being one?” (299). In his support for women’s rights and in memory of his mother’s death, he performs this job that is often difficult, unpleasant, and emotional.

Though readers are not yet aware of it, Bex has given birth to a child herself under painful circumstances, a reminder of The Role of Empathy in Understanding Contentious Issues. She tells Wren that she supports a woman’s right to choose but is reluctant to enter the Center with her. She thinks that even though Wren is only getting birth control, “there [a]re still other women in there, maybe women who [don’t have] aunts to bring them here, who ha[ve] run out of options” (282). These women are “creating secrets they [will] hide from others. It [makes] her sick to her stomach” (282). At this juncture, readers might assume that Bex is judging other women, though she has told Wren that she is not anti-abortion. However, with knowledge about Bex’s past, it is apparent that she is processing her own trauma about her pregnancy and the fallout in her life, including the secrets that she is keeping from Hugh and Wren.

Janine offers the perspective of a character who is staunchly anti-abortion, to the extent that she has infiltrated the Center to try to shut it down. However, her morals do not focus only on unborn lives. When the shooting begins, Izzy tells her that she can escape and save herself or help save Bex. Janine thinks, “If the only lives [she] cared about were those of the unborn, that would make her a hypocrite” (265). She stops and helps to staunch Bex’s bleeding, talking with her and trying to comfort her. This establishes a contrast with the clinic receptionist, Rachel, who runs out the door when the shooting begins. Picoult shows that people are capable of complex motivations and emotions and that focusing on a single issue does not adequately depict someone’s life and experiences. Janine is capable of subterfuge, but she is also capable of courage and tenderness.