December 14, 2016 - 17:52
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." That is a saying that I've always heard from my mother when ever she describes how I am just like my father. But wouldn't it make sense to be a splitting image of the person that has raised you for your whole life? From the first moment that I opened my eyes my father was there, he was the first person that I saw when taking my first look at what was in front of me. So, it makes sense that me, the apple, wouldn't fall far from the tree, my dad. I can say the same thing about my mother as well. Similarly, Billy Beade hasn't fallen far from the tree that is her mother due to certain circumstances that has driven her decisions in life. But Billy does not want to be like her mother. Although she is the apple from a tree, she is not a tree but an apple, she is her own unique thing. Sure there are remnants from her mother which the reader can see throughout the book, but ultimately her decision to not have the abortion has shown that she is not just like Willa Beede. Willa supposedly had very expensive pearls and a diamond ring buried with her. Due to the belief that she had this treasure buried with it caused Billy and Dill to make greedy decisions. Not only did Billy make greedy decisions but she made decisions that her mother would have made, which was something that she was doing unconsciously although she wanted to be nothing like her mother.
Willa Beede was a smart women. She led everyone to believe that she was more than she actually was. Especially when it came to the jewelry. Dill thought that Willa basically owed it to her because of her infidelity. Willa and Dill's relationship wasn't even of Billy's knowledge. The fact that her own daughter was willing to dig up her grave for the jewelry shows the affect that she had on her loved ones. Meaning that she didn't affect them positively when she was alive so when she died, there wasn't much of a care for her that her own daughter was willing to take something from her corpse. The same goes for Dill because she was willing to just take her ex-lover's jewelry and use it to herself afloat and have everyone else think that it was buried with Willa.
Although Willa was not faithful to Dill, Dill couldn't completely forget the fact that she did love her. In my opinion I would be heartbroken if someone I had feelings for, died. But instead she didn't, instead she became greedy and kept Willa's jewelry for her own selfish reasons in a way like a final act of revenge. The "pearls she [has] asked [Dill] to bury with her, [Dill has] been selling pearl by pearl to a fella in Dallas who don't ask no questions" (37).
Billy wanted to avoid being like her mother at all costs. But she too made greedy decisions like her mother without actually realizing it. The whole reason for wanting to take the jewelry from her mother's grave was because she wanted to have an abortion because Snipes tricked her to think that he wanted to marry her, but instead he lied and was married to another woman with children. She wanted to do this to spite Snipes. The idea of stealing from her mom to pay for an abortion to upset the father is an act of greed. If Billy didn't know that her mother was "buried with expensive jewelry" then she wouldn't be making this decision. But come to find out that Willa's jewelry was fake, Billy did not end up getting the abortion. That itself was still a decision she came up with herself aside from all of the decisions she has made similar to her mother's. This was her finally taking control over her life and not letting the fear of being like her dead mother drive what she does.