Saint Maybe Analysis

Saint Maybe is a story about a picture-perfect Baltimore family. The Bedloe family, the focus of the story, is far from being perfect. The family consist of parents Bee and Doug, Claudia, the oldest child, Danny the middle son and Ian the youngest. Danny marries Lucy, a divorcee with two children Agatha and Thomas. Lucy was pregnant before meeting Danny, so Danny’s daughter Daphne, is someone else’s baby. Danny may know Daphne is not his daughter, but ignores the fact. Ian, only 17 years old, suspects Lucy cheats on his brother Danny, while Ian babysit the three kids. Ian has sex with his girlfriend Cicely before marriage and when Cicely believes she is pregnant; Ian wants her to take a pill to end the pregnancy. The life of the Bedloes is
He visits a church to pray for forgiveness, Ian asks, “Pray for me to be good again. Pray for me to be forgiven” (Tyler 119). He asks the reverend for forgiveness, but the reverend says God cannot forgive him until he repairs the harm he caused. Though, Ian’s parents are too old to take care of the children, all three kids are staying with Ian’s parents as Lucy has no relatives and the family cannot find the two oldest kids’ father. Ian tells his parents the reverend says that to earn forgiveness he needs to drop out of college and raise the kids. Parents do not agree and wonder what church will tell a young adult to leave college to raise someone else kids. Ian has to tell his parents that he causes Danny’s death and it is his fault that the kids are without parents. At the end, Ian listens to the reverend, quits college and moves back home with his parents to take care of the kids. His decision to sacrifice his education to take care of the three kids explains the title of this story, since Ian becomes the kids’ father and guardian, which others will consider his action, the action of a
Ian drops out of college and becomes a carpenter to help support the family. He asks Cicely to marry him in order to follow the church’s rule of no sex before marriage, but Cicely thinks they are too young to get married, so they split. Bee and Doug get used to have three children in the house. Claudia, though already busy with her six kids, when she can she helps with the cleaning of the house. As time goes by, Ian is a lonely man that is still believe he has not been forgiven so he continues to search for forgiveness. Agatha and Thomas become young adults with lives of their own. The youngest child Daphne is already 16 years old and has a boyfriend. The story is about to repeat, when Ian goes to pick up Daphne from school and he sees Daphne’s boyfriend with another girl. Instead, Ian controls his emotions and does not tell Daphne of her boyfriend’s wrongdoing. At the end, Bee Bedloe dies and Doug Bedloe is very much hurt after her death. Ian is deeply connected to the church and do not pay attention to any woman around him until he meets Rita. At the beginning when he meets Rita, the clutter counselor, in other words the lady that organizes the family house after Bee’s death, he believes they do not have anything in common. However, he calls Rita back and after meeting her one evening he believes they are good for each other. After a month, Ian decides it is time to ask her to