The Push: Mother. Daughter. Angel. Monster?

As a child, Blythe knocks on the Ellingtons’ door to play with their boys, Thomas and Daniel. Mr. Ellington answers and says the boys are at their aunts and Mrs. Ellington is sick. Upstairs, Mrs. Ellington tells Blythe that she is resting after suffering a miscarriage.

Three months after Elijah’s accident, the Connors move from their apartment into a three-bedroom home. Blythe says, “I think we’ll be happy here,” to which Fox replies, “I thought we always were” (112).

Blythe decides she wants to have another baby: “I wanted another chance at motherhood. I could not concede that I was the problem” (114). Fox reluctantly agrees, but Blythe doubts his sincerity.

One night when Blythe is ovulating, she tries to initiate sex with Fox. When Fox’s body language suggests that he doesn’t want to have sex, she accuses him of not wanting another baby. At that he relents, but their sex is cut short after Violet walks in on them.

The next morning, Blythe overhears Violet say she hates her. Fox merely replies, “Violet, she’s your mom” (115).

That night, Blythe begs Fox to try just one more time to make another baby, and Fox reluctantly agrees. The attempt is successful.

Now pregnant, Blythe goes to a flea market and is profoundly affected by a painting of a mother with a baby boy on her lap. She buys the painting to hang up in her next child’s nursery.

Blythe learns that her new child will be a boy. She even has some fun moments with Violet, who helps her go through old baby clothes.

The moment Blythe gives birth to Sam fills her with euphoria: “He was my miracle. [...] He was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen” (121). Fox says he looks just like Violet, but Blythe disagrees.

Blythe adds, “I remember so little else about how he came into this world. I remember everything about how he left it” (122).

When Cecilia has her first period at age 12, Etta refuses to help her or explain what it means; she merely tries to give Cecilia two of the white pills she hides from Henry. Fortunately, Cecilia learned about puberty from classmates and has the wherewithal to take money from Etta’s purse to buy sanitary pads.

Blythe has fond memories of her earliest days with Sam. The tears she sheds are a “release of love” (125), and even though her nipples hurt from feeding him, she cherishes this time in a way she never did with Violet.

Violet doesn’t like Sam at first, but Sam adores her. Meanwhile, the distance grows between Blythe and Fox, whose lived experiences continue to diverge. While Fox supports the family by going to work and interacting with adults, Blythe feels like a machine—a body that must keep running even as it turns itself to “mush” (127).

As Blythe schedules swim classes and playdates, Fox resents how much busier Sam’s social life is than Violet’s was. One night, Blythe overhears Fox tell his mother, “She loves that boy. I just wish she felt that same way about Violet” (130). Later, Violet asks Blythe if she loves Sam more than her. Blythe says she does not, yet she worries that Violet may have overheard Fox say something to this effect.

Nevertheless, Blythe’s relationship with Violet is the strongest it’s ever been, particularly as Violet begins to warm to Sam.

One night, Blythe goes to check on Sam, lifting him up and comforting him in her arms. Suddenly, she hears Violet say, “Put him down” (134). Blythe didn’t realize that Violet was in the dark room. She’d been watching him sleep. Violet continues to insist that Blythe put Sam down in a voice that still haunts Blythe today.

Blythe leaves Violet and Sam with a babysitter so that she can get a pedicure with a friend. During the pedicure, Blythe imagines a scenario in which Violet grabs one of Fox’s golf clubs from the basement and bashes Sam’s head in. In a panic, Blythe runs out of the salon and comes home to find Sam asleep and Violet reading in her room.

The small bit of affection that had grown between Blythe and Violet after Sam’s birth is now gone. Violet’s contempt takes the form of passive resistance to even the simplest commands.

Meanwhile, Blythe gets a prescription for anxiety medication but never fills it, thinking back to the pills Cecilia often took.

Blythe remembers when her mother fell ill and stayed in bed for many days. During this period, Seb would frequently answer the phone and say that Cecilia was not there. Blythe notices blood in the toilet bowl, and Seb tells her that Cecilia had a “procedure.”

Blythe recalls the day before Sam died. The family goes to the zoo, and Blythe buys her children two tiny lion figurines from the gift shop. On the way home, Violet, now seven years old, throws her lion out the window, saying, “I didn’t want the mom lion. I hate my mom” (147).

At home, Violet helps Blythe give Sam a bath, calling him “a good baby” (148) but then saying, “I don’t want Sammy anymore” (148). Nevertheless, she still kisses him goodnight.

The next day, school is closed, leaving Blythe, Violet, and Sam alone for the day. They go to a coffee shop where the owner, Joe, is friendly to Violet, and Blythe orders a hot tea. Outside, they wait at a crosswalk for the light to change, Sam in his stroller. Suddenly, Violet grabs Blythe’s arm as she’s taking a sip of tea, causing her to burn her face. As Blythe grabs her face with both hands, Sam’s stroller rolls into the road. An SUV driven by a mother with two kids in her backseat crushes it, killing Sam instantly.

Unable to move, Blythe stares at the twisted stroller. She looks down at the curb and sees a groove between the road and the sidewalk she thinks is deep enough to stop a rolling stroller. Blythe is convinced that she saw Violet’s pink mittens touch the stroller when Blythe was scalded by the tea.

Of the events between that revelation and being at the hospital, Blythe has no memory. When Fox arrives, he hugs Violet and then Blythe. Down the hall, Blythe and Violet get water from a water cooler. Although Blythe knows Violet has to pee, she does not take her to the bathroom: “I wanted to let her wet herself” (153).

Still at the hospital, Blythe tells Fox, “I think she pushed him into the road. I told the police. [...] I saw her pink mittens on the handle of the stroller. [...] It wouldn’t have rolled over that groove” (153). Fox insists that it was an accident, shaking his head at the police officer, who acknowledges that he does not believe Blythe either.

Sitting in the emergency room, Blythe thinks back to a question Violet asked her a week ago: “Do the cars only stop when the light is red?” (154).