Analysis of This Is All Mostly True by Kathy Stevens

Opgave A – Fiction
This Is All Mostly True

        A common and utmost phenomenal ability for the human race, is it’s ability to lie, falsely portray or even construct entirely distorted universes and identities. This ability is more often than not used to better ones own situation or to avoid responsibility. It can be used with malice and cruel intent in the worst cases, or result in serious consequences for all parties involved in the web of lies. But quite commonly, and quite unfortunately, it is also needed to protect and defend yourself and the people around you. Being raised as a child with mental and/or physical disabilities, damaging and restricting your social capabilities, forcing your entire well-being to be the responsibility of a debilitated family in constant discordant strife triggers this ability. This is exactly what Kathy Stevens describes in her novel “This Is All Mostly True” (2017), through the eyes of Elsie, a disabled girl of fourteen, who would much rather try to survive in a world of fiction and lies, than come to terms with the destructive force of conflicts in her family.

        The raging conflict between the mother and father of Elsie, leaves them unable to take proper care of their daughter and could quite possibly be the reason for her episodes. It is not easy to state what good parenting is, but what it definitely is not, is to indulge one’s child in the problems of the parents. Elsie’s parents often fight, swear at or about each other, or perform other passive/aggressive acts that leaves Elsie in a tight spot between them “She drinks too bloody much, is what Dad says. I drink because your father’s a cheating bastard, is what Mum says.”(p.1 l.13-14). Besides the addictions and verbal abuse, Elsie also only spends time with them separately, where their differences in parenting truly shows “Dad and I watch zombie films whenever mum’s out with the girls (it’s out thing)… Mum says lying is wrong; Dad says white lies are okay” (p.1. l.5 – l.1). In different ways the mother and father both neglect Elsie’s needs while still trying to be loving towards her. It can be seen in the movie sessions Elsie and her father have together, and the mother singing bedside songs for her. Yet the fathers irresponsibility forces Elsie to mature faster, the mothers neglect of her during her episodes does not invalidate them but might even cause them, and the web of lies between them all confuses Elsie. Put briefly, Elsie is an only child caught in a divorce without a separation, and for this she feels like a forced responsibility and obligation: “Mum feels obliged, because of me, to keep trying to love Dad. I’m an obligation… I need to remember to be better at ‘basic things’” (p.1. l. 59 – l. 41). Another point is, that Elsie expresses a less inclination to have her so-called episodes when she is with Stacie. This chains together with the idea that her home environment is toxic.

The role of the use of fiction is purely survival. Had it been portrayed in another setting with other children it might have come of differently. But in Stevens novel, Elsie’s use of fiction is a psychological tool of defense that  has been indirectly encouraged by her nanny Stacie “Fiction is complicated. But Stacie says it’s easier than real life.”(p.3 l. 105). One of the reasons why she indulges herself in the fictive universe, is that “Credible lies are just fine in fiction.”(p. 3 l. 89). If the lies, even the credible ones are fine in fiction, she does not have to be in conflict about lying, like her parents are. She also fiddles with the ideas of emotional complexity and the death of her father. A death caused by saving her. There can be two reasons for this. Firstly, allowing the father to die in her fictive universe can be a representation of how difficult she finds the double-sided conflict, cutting one side out of the equation. Secondly, her father would be redeemed by saving her in the eyes of the mother, whilst also saving her from her problems. Thirdly, it is under no circumstance coincidental that his should be during a zombie outbreak. It is commonly linked to the idea of a post-apocalyptic world where everyone gets a new chance at life, while also enduring the daily struggles of survival. Post-apocalyptic coincidentally also fits with the genre of the text.