The Funeral Scene (in reference to "The Rake")

At David's mother's funeral, a family secret is finally revealed. David and his sister finally learn the truth about their mother's childhood. Everyone but them had known about it, but everyone remained silent. It takes a death for the truth to finally come out. Because of this, the two children probably always wondered how their mother could be so accepting of such a violent man (their stepfather).

Through learning about the fact that their mother was beaten when she was little by their grandfather, a whole new world of understanding is opened up. However, it would have probably been better if they would have learned about this fact before she died. They probably had a lot of resentment toward their mother for allowing their stepfather to act so violently toward them and to be so abusive to David's sister. I know I would have a lot of resentment if it was me.

This scene reminds me of the saying "to take something to the grave". David's mother took her secret to the grave with her and left it up to someone else (the kids' aunt) to tell her story. She may have been ashamed, or maybe she was so hurt by it that she just refused to talk about it. This makes me think of women who are beaten by their spouses but refuse to report it. They walk around hiding ovious black eyes and making excuses, because they do not know how to handle it. Either they are afraid or ashamed. Or they really want to believe that the abuser really loves them and they only do it because of "this" or "that". David's mother wanted to believe that her father loved her. How could someone who helped bring her into the world not love her??

All of this brings me back to the scened where David's mother is in the closet crying and David's stepfather is begging David's mother's father to tell David's mother that he loves her. For some reason, he just can't say it. This is really sad to me. How can you stand up in front of your own child and be unable to tell them you love them, especially when they have broken down into tears? This must have really hurt David's mother, so she took her secret to the grave.