Ernie Breaks

The first thing that comes to me while reading this short story is responsibility. Defined as the state of being the person who caused something to happen, a duty or task that you are required or expected to do, something that you should do because it is morally right or legally required.
The short story, Ernie Breaks written by Genevieve, main themes is responsibility and expectations. Cara is expected to be responsible for the turtle. She is expected to be responsible in school. And expected to be responsible of her own behaviour. Jed, her brother, has a sort of the same responsibilities according to the turtle, which he and Cara fails. Cara is expected to be responsible for Ernie and for taking care of him, but she ends up killing him by dropping him on the floor. In the same way is Jed expected to be responsible for Ernie, but like his sister, he does not fulfil the task as it was expected of them. Referring to the definition of being responsible Jed and Cara fails.
The story is told from Cara’s point of view. Cara is 10 years old and she is just graduated from 4th grade. She lives with her mother and her older brother, Jed. Cara is in some ways a smart girl, she is fully aware of how to handle her mother and get the most out of a situation. For example with the passing gift. Cara wants a dog, but her mother wants to make a deal and give her a fish. Cara knows if she agrees with the deal something more may come. She is also noticing the small details and she is very observant, she noticed when Gary touched her mother’s shoulder when they were talking about people’s sexuality. Her mother’s neck was red as a ham, she noticed. On the other hand, she has troubles in school with both the other kids and the educational stuff. She refuses to submit her math test and is a borderline candidate for the special Ed room, as Jed calls it “The retard room”.
It is clear that Cara seeks her brother’s acceptance and wants to be cool in his eyes. Jed is accepting her and wants to be with her and Ernie until school starts. Then everything is turned upside down. Jed does not want to be together with Cara and will not let her in to his room to be with Ernie. The fact that Jed has left Cara outside in the cold, means that Cara does not get help from Jed with her math homework as it was expected and she is not able to take care of Ernie. As an example of Cara trying to gain Jed’s acceptances. Cara does not tell their mother about the way Jed mistreated Ernie. Jed and Cara are able to fake their common responsibility for Ernie’s wealth into a cause of death by infection and not maltreatment. According to the definition of responsibility, they fail to do what is morally right.
In the pet store, she does not want to have the angelfish because it is too gay. The fish becomes the symbol of her trying to be tough or cool in her brother’s eyes. She chooses the turtle because it is so ugly that it is cute.
When sitting at the math test she works with fractions she says why learn something that is broken. Things are useless when they are broken. If you are not responsible of the thing being broken why care? This represents at least two symbols as I see it.
It gives her an excuse of not knowing what to do with the fractions in the math test. They are broken and why fix them?
Ernie’s death. Ernie is broken. He is a fraction. Neither Cara nor her brother Jed takes responsibility of telling each other and their mother the truth about Ernie’s death. He is broken like a fraction and therefore he is useless.
The mother is not responsible according to the signals she and the pet shop owner Gary sends. Cara has observed that Gary touched the mother and the mother got red and she paid sixty dollars for Ernie. Cara does not really think it was such a great offer but instead she thinks it was an excuse for her mother to visit Gary from Quit4life. When confronting her mother she is told not to change the topic.
Living in a family, we expect that all members is telling the truth. That they are responsible to each other.
From my point of view. The mother tries to cover up her relationship with Gary when Cara is confronting her. That is not what we expect from a mother and it is not responsible behaviour. The children of the family covers up the truth about Ernie’s death. That is not what is expected and it is not responsible. Like mother - like daughter and son.