On never knowing what Marian actually wanted.

[dreadedcandiru2]

Recently, aprilp_katje linked to a strip that had Elly have no real idea what she would have done with her Bachelor Of Arts degree if she ever bothered getting it. The interesting thing is not that she joins most of the cast in assuming sight unseen that getting married and having kids and getting her degree were mutually exlusive (which is the subject an upcoming look at the collective stupidity of the Patterson family) but that she has no more idea of what she would have done with it than she has any idea of what Marian really expected of her.

The reason for this is that it's easier for Elly to make a self-serving assumption that cast her mother in the most negative light because it spared her the awful burden of having to see her as anything other than a heartless antagonist who yearned to see her feel terrible and ugly and stupid and confused and miserable. To live in the World That Is in which Marian was a fallible human being doing her stupid best instead of the World That Makes Her Feel Good in which Marian was an ogre who loved every minute of busting Elly's ass is a horrible thing because it makes Elly into part of the problem. It's thus simpler for Elly to assume that her awful mother wanted her to die alone and for her grandchildren to never be born because she doesn't want to admit that she should have told John to shove his passive-aggressive huffing and puffing about living in a hooooooome up his God-damned ass, a deal is a God-damned deal.