A House Of Secrets 1-30

Summary
Patti Davis, daughter of our former President Ronald Reagan, and first lady Nancy Reagan, wrote a novel about her secret family life.  In her story she reveals that her life was not as nice as the world marked it to be.  In this section of the story she begins to talk about her childhood, and how (as she would say) grew up in a house of story tellers.  Her father, Ronald Reagan would constantly tell her stories so she would be able to go to sleep at night.  Patti loved his stories and could not wait until he could tell more.  Her mom was quite the opposite.  She did not believe in stories, and felt that stories were just lies and fabrications that were unnecessary.  The only real story that she ever told her daughter was the one of how hard it was to give birth to her.  Unlike Patti's dad, her mom did not appreciate and love her daughter as much.  Instead of caring, and loving her the way a mother should, she instantly blamed her child’s existence for all her problems.  This caused Patti to eventually detest her mother for all the emotional pain that she put her through.  This intense pain stayed with her all the way up to her adult years.  It caused her to have a medical procedure to prevent her from having children.  Even though Patti felt that by doing this she would be happier, she realized that by stopping herself from having any other children to pass on her generation only made her mother happy.

Quote
"As time stripped away my childhood from me I became, to my mother, a symbol of her own doubts, her own pain." (Davis 17)

Reaction
This quote was extremely powerful in the text.  Even though this phrase is very short, it has a very devastating, and sympathetic meaning.  The way Patti Davis wrote this piece of dialogue makes the reader feel emotional.  For a woman to feel that her life will always be a mistake, and will always be known as an abrupt sin, is a very emotional experience that is only filled with anguish and pain.  After reading this part I became for thankful about the people who take care of me every day.  This quote made me realize that even though not everything goes my way, I can still be thankful to actually have a mother who will care for me, and comfort me in my times of sorrow.