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Certainly! “What She Left Behind” by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a haunting and heartbreaking historical fiction novel that weaves together riveting stories from two different times. Let me summarize it for you:
In the 1920s, young flapper and suffragette Clara Cartwright faces the challenges of being caught between her overbearing parents and her desire to be a modern woman. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara finds love with an Italian immigrant. However, her father’s financial losses in the stock market crash of 1929 led to her commitment to a public asylum.
Fast forward to the present day, where seventeen-year-old Izzy Stone’s mother fatally shot her father. Devastated by her mother’s apparent insanity, Izzy refuses to visit her in prison. But when Izzy helps catalog items at a long-shuttered state asylum, she discovers unopened letters and a decades-old journal that reveal a window into her own past.
Main Characters
- Clara Cartwright: was a young flapper and suffragette in the 1920s. Caught between her parents’ expectations and her desire for independence, Clara faces love, betrayal, and tragedy.
- Izzy Stone: is a seventeen-year-old girl in the present day. After her mother kills her father, Izzy discovers a connection to Clara’s past through letters and a journal from a long-shuttered state asylum.
Plot
Certainly! “What She Left Behind” by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a haunting and heartbreaking historical fiction novel that weaves together riveting stories from two different times.
In the 1920s, young flapper and suffragette Clara Cartwright faces the challenges of being caught between her overbearing parents and her desire to be a modern woman. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara finds love with an Italian immigrant. However, her father’s financial losses in the stock market crash of 1929 led to her commitment to a public asylum.
Fast forward to the present day, where seventeen-year-old Izzy Stone’s mother fatally shot her father. Devastated by her mother’s apparent insanity, Izzy refuses to visit her in prison. But when Izzy helps catalog items at a long-shuttered state asylum, she discovers unopened letters and a decades-old journal that reveal a window into her own past. As Izzy pieces together Clara’s fate, she re-examines her own choices with shocking and unexpected results.
Setting
The setting of “What She Left Behind” by Ellen Marie Wiseman primarily revolves around Willard State Asylum, located in New York state. This remote facility sits on a piece of land surrounded by a flowing lake, designed to prevent or lessen the possibility of patient escape. Initially created with the well-being of patients in mind, the reality within its walls is far darker. Willard State Asylum becomes more akin to a sadistic prison population than a place that genuinely helps struggling patients recover from mental illness. Feel free to ask if you’d like more details or have any other requests!
Themes
Certainly! “What She Left Behind” by Ellen Marie Wiseman explores several compelling themes:
Mental Illness and Inhumane Treatment: The novel delves into the history of mental illness patient care, highlighting the failures and inhumane practices that occurred in the past. Clara Cartwright’s unjust confinement in state-run asylums sheds light on the mistreatment of women who were committed for reasons such as disobeying their husbands or fathers12.Family Relationships and Secrets: The story weaves together the lives of Izzy Stone and Clara Cartwright. Izzy’s troubled past and her connection to Clara’s journal reveal family secrets, love, betrayal, and unexpected connections across generations.Human Resilience and Survival: Both Clara and Izzy face adversity and struggle to overcome their challenges. Their resilience and determination to protect those they care about underscore the strength of the human spirit.
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