The Pinballs

These opening chapters establish the initial characterization of the three central characters: Carlie, Harvey, and Thomas J. They also examine The Effects of Parental Abuse on Children and the varied abusive situations that minors who end up in the foster system might face.

Carlie is performatively abrasive and watchful of other people. When she brings Harvey breakfast in bed, she alternates between teasing him to provoke a reaction and looking at him to see his reaction to her words. When speaking to more than one person, she “glance[s] around the room, taking in everyone present” (16). Carlie is watching everyone closely, monitoring their reactions and emotional responses to her words. This “emotion monitoring” can often occur in people who experience trauma due to abuse in childhood. They become hyper-aware of other people’s emotional reactions, especially anger, “to anticipate any negative feelings they might experience” (Torres-Mackie, Naomi. “Empathy’s Evil Twin.” Psychology Today. 6 January 2020). For the traumatized or abused child, this anticipation becomes a survival mechanism.

People who monitor emotions often gain the ability “in order to survive unsafe situations” (Torres-Mackie). One of the situations that led to Carlie’s placement in foster care was when her stepfather “had hit her so hard when she wouldn’t tell him where she’d been that she had gotten a concussion” (6). Location monitoring is a common abuse tactic tied to the abuser’s need to “to gain or maintain power and control” (“What is Domestic Abuse?” United Nations). When the abuser—Carlie’s stepfather, in this situation—feels their power or control threatened, they might escalate to physical abuse to maintain it. Carlie, a survivor of such abuse, is hypervigilant of people’s response to her; this hyperawareness is a defensive tactic to prepare her for their reactions.

Harvey is nonconfrontational, and in addition to struggling with his physical injuries, he sometimes lacks motivation to get out of bed and go about his day. He thinks about the last of many “terrible quarrel[s]” his parents had before his mother left (25). While children can learn positive conflict resolution strategies from their parents if they work to resolve their problems together in a healthy way, witnessing domestic disputes conducted with toxic argumentative strategies or abuse harms children, who are extremely attuned to emotions. When parents use hostile strategies in their arguments, children who overhear “can become distraught, worried, anxious, and hopeless” (Divecha, Diana. “What Happens to Kids When Parents Fight.” Greater Good Magazine. 26 January 2016). In addition, when one parent abandons this conflict without the necessary emotional care for the child, children can be left feeling deserted or “unprotected” by the remaining parent (Divecha).

Harvey hears his mother tell his father that she has “no identity” (25). In response, his father says, “You’re my wife, isn’t that identity enough?” (25). Harvey witnesses a toxic exchange between his parents. Everyone deserves to have an autonomous individual identity, and no one’s identity should be defined fully through their relationship to another person. Due to the prevalence of patriarchal social systems in the West, women traditionally are expected to be the primary caregivers and homemakers, even when they have full-time jobs. These types of labor, both visible and invisible, can be so taxing that mothers have trouble maintaining a sense of individual identity. While Harvey’s mother’s desire to “find [her]self” is understandable, the way she abruptly deserts Harvey and cuts off all communication with him is toxic. Her abandonment of Harvey leaves him exposed to his father’s alcoholism and anger.

Thomas J is quiet and eager to please. Healthy, loving families freely give children approval, which is vital for their development. In early childhood, approval from primary caregivers builds a child’s sense of confidence and self-worth. Experiencing emotional or physical neglect from one’s guardians in early childhood can lead people to habitually seek praise and approval from other people.

Due to the Benson twins’ neglect, Thomas J often exhibits approval-seeking behavior. The twins had only once “touched him on purpose” (18), when they patted his head for finding their father’s gold watch. After that, Thomas J wished they would keep losing the watch “over and over again so he could keep finding it, the way a dog keeps fetching a stick” (18). Thomas J must fight for scraps of approval and affection.

When Carlie loses her earring, he “couldn’t wait to bring it to her” (18). He imagines a situation like when he found the Benson twins’ gold watch, where Carlie validates and praises him for finding her lost item. Carlie, who is suspicious by nature, not only does not validate him but suspects him of stealing it. Confronted with an accusation so discordant with the approval he seeks, “Thomas J yelled. He took two steps backward. ‘I found it!’” (19). Due to the neglect he endured through his childhood, Thomas J does not have the coping skills or self-confidence to respond to Carlie’s accusation. Instead of knowing how to handle her accusation, he panics and yells until Carlie herself de-escalates the situation.