What Makes The Casual Disappearance

Family. Everyone has one. Most people love their family, but sometimes, they can make life quite harder than it has to be. In The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling uses these familial problems to show that seemingly weak or innocent characters can learn to fight back and get retribution. Although J.K. Rowling may exaggerate these problems to make the point clear, the end result can be the same when comparing this to reality. This is seen when Andrew, Sukhvinder and Fats all choose to use The_Ghost_of_Barry_Fairbrother as a response to get revenge upon their parents for problems that have arisen in their family. First, Andrew Price founded the fake account to fight back against his abusive father. Then, Sukhvinder uses the same account to make her
The reader knows how bad Simon Price can be to his family, but especially towards his two children. The thing is, the reader can assume that Simon’s reign of power goes on further than just the couple of days The Casual Vacancy goes on for. After all, when Andrew was making the post to attack his father on the Pagford Parish Council website, he said: “There were many accusations he could have leveled at Simon, but the court did not exist in which Andrew could have presented evidence memories of physical terror and ritual humiliation.” (Rowling 241.) Across the span of the book, the audience saw Simon hit his family, call them names (many of which are unspeakable in this essay), and degrade them one at a time. Who can really blame Andrew for wanting revenge? Not only did Andrew attempt to shame and get revenge on his father using the Council’s website, but he also attempted to fight back against his father and save his mother in the very moment. “Andrew made himself a promise: he seemed to move in slow motion, and everything was cold and clammy and slightly unreal. “Don't hit her,” he said, forcing himself between his parents” (Rowling 283). Since this is something he wasn't able to beforehand, this shows that Andrew, a seemingly weak character due to his father’s antics, was able to grow and confront his dad and stick up for his family. From enduring this harsh
That's already bad enough, right? Well, it gets worse. Halfway through the book, her mother Parminder, begins to question Sukhvinder’s decisions and become fairly hostile towards her daughter. On page 318, Sukhvinder shows her bad relationship with her mother first hand when she mocks her by saying: “What's wrong with you, Sukhvinder? You disgust me. Are you proud of being lazy and sloppy?” (Rowling 318). This quote that Sukhvinder is saying lead to something more than just mocking and a bad relationship with her mother. This actually lead to the next post of The_Ghost_of_Barry_Fairbrother in which Sukhvinder leveled many accusations towards her mother. The post on the council’s website said: “Dr. Parminder pretends to be so keen on looking after the poor and needy and has always had a secret motive. She was in love with me... (Barry Fairbrother) and now that I am gone, she will be useless as councillor because she has lost her brain.” (Rowling 338). Sukhvinder felt so destroyed and so dehumanized from the fight with her mom, she lowered all accusations on her mother, creating an environment that made her mother feel just as hurt as she had hurt Sukhvinder. After all, Sukhvinder did say: “The dark lake of desperation and pain that lived in Sukhvinder and yearned for release was in flames, as if it had been fuel all along. Let her see how it feels” (Rowling 319).