into trying to turn that dream into a reality, despite her husband's weaknesses.
The family is part of the larger system of the community of Harvester, Minnesota, a town struggling to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Within that community, the Catholic church is an important part of Lark's life; her mother converted to Catholicism to marry her father, and Lark is presently spending many hours in catechism class, in preparation for her first communion, confession, and confirmation after her seventh birthday.
Beyond Harvester, Lark is part of a wider system of relatives who live close enough for her to see with some regularity and relatives about whom she has only heard family stories. She is also connected to the wider world, the almost mythical country that includes distant figures such as President Roosevelt and a menacing German named Adolph Hitler. All of these people, places, and events have an influence on Lark, affecting the person she is becoming and changing her choices and actions. In some instances, the effects are more obvious and powerful than in others, but each element has impact.
One of the most interesting is the influence of a war that ended before Lark was born. The Great War, as all the grownups around her call World War I, prepared her parents' generation for the prospect of another international conflict. One of Harvester's citizens who served in that war returned to the town as a decorated hero. Hilly Stillman gave everything he could in defense of his country, and the experience left him shell-shocked, terrified, and childlike. He is now the butt of many local jokes, an embarrassment to the community he defended so courageously.
Carol Gilligan and Grant Wiggins (1988) point out that a child's attitudes towards justice and care are most often influenced by the mother. Lark's mother teaches her to be compassionate towards Hilly, and Lark soon becomes his friend, reading stories to...