The Dollmaker is the saddest book I have ever read. This is not only because of the specific events that occur -- which are tragic -- but also because everything that happen to the Nevels family, especially Gertie (and there are a lot of bad things that happen to them), are completely plausible.
The most pivotal of these events, in my opinion, is the scene in the book when Cassie, Gertie's youngest daughter, is killed.
Cassie had always had an imaginary friend named Callie Lou. Gertie had always indulged Cassie's make-believe games by pretending to see the imaginary friend. However, once the family moves to Detroit, Cassie is ridiculed for talking to Callie Lou. Clytie, the oldest daughter, begs, "'Mom, I wisht you'd make her quit talken to herself that away; th kids'ull laugh at her'" (256). Mrs. Anderson, their neighbor, says "'Talking to herself so much is rather bad, don't you think?'" (378). Clovis instructs Gertie to tell Cassie to stop. Gertie doesn't think it's right to do so -- "'A body's got to have somethen all their own'" (379) -- but she bends to the wishes of the people around her. She tells Cassie to stop talking to her friend.
Gertie soon changes her mind about banishing the imaginary friend and tries to find Cassie to tell her. Cassie is playing on the railroad tracks. What follows is one of the most well-written scenes of suspense and tragedy I have ever read. The tension builds for what seems like forever as Gertie tries desperately to get to her daughter off the tracks. A plane flying above them is deafening, so Gertie "could only try to send her screams above the airplane that circled ever lower" (404). A high fence stands between Gertie and the tracks, but she cannot get through the tiny hole. She tries to find something to throw to get Cassie's attention. She runs into the street to go around and it she hears trains rushing past. She finally gets to the tracks and finds a horrific scene: Cassie's legs have been severed off at the knees by the train. She's alive, but barely, and dies on the way to the hospital, despite Gertie's pleas to her -- "'Cassie, honey, you can have Callie Lou -- allus an forever you can have Callie Lou'" (409).
This is the only time I've ever cried while reading a book. At the hospital, it only gets worse. Gertie procures the hundreds of dollars she's saved over the years and hands it to Clovis. She thinks she can pay to take Cassie's body with her sooner. Clovis drops some of the money at one point, and a policeman literally steals it from her, right in front of her and with no shame, even though her daughter just got killed by a train (412).
The scene is so important to the book not only because it is crucial to the plot, but also because it symbolizes all of the things that Gertie thought would go wrong when she moved to Detroit. Her inability to reach Cassie represents her increasing separation from her children, both physical and emotional. Her son Reuben had already run away back to Kentucky because he hated Detroit and thought his mother was responsible for the move. Because she can't help Cassie, and also because she feels responsible for her death, Gertie feels weak and ineffectual. It's also fitting that Cassie would be killed by a train, with an airplane above, after Gertie ran into a busy street, with the factory behind the train tracks. Life in an industrial city is literally taking Gertie's children from her.
(There is even more cruel irony when Clovis tries to make Gertie feel better by telling her that, had he known she had had so much money saved up, he would have told her to stay in Kentucky and buy the land she always wanted.)
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