Why do you think King didn't tell his children the truth about what happened to their mother?

Why do you think King didn't tell his children the truth about what happened to their mother?

I'm not sure. She died in childbirth with her youngest child so it seems odd that the older children knew nothing about this and thought she'd left them. That just didn't make sense to me. Why would King want them to think she left them?

I think he was quite heartbroken about it and he probably didn't want the children blaming Tokey for "killing" their mother and didn't want Tokey to feel as if she did.

I wasn't sure and thought that was confusing. I can't imagine letting children think their mother left them rather than letting them know their mother died. I could understand if he did not tell them exactly how she died until they were older, but it seemed to me that, for whatever reason, he behaved selfishly.

I wasn't sure why they weren't told this. Was it the concept of denial so that it didn't have to be dealt with? I think it was detrimental to the children to not know what happened to her.

I think there was a lot of silence in that household in general, things happened, no one spoke about them, the family just moved on. We don't know what King actually said to his children, maybe it was something like "your momma's gone," which the kids interpreted as her having willfully left. And then they simply didn't talk about it going forward.

I imagine King was overwhelmed by the death of the love of his life, and by the fact that he now had to care for four very young children. With that kind of grief all you can do is just put one foot in front of the other - just survive. It was probably too painful for him to talk about.

I too think he was heartbroken about her death and overwhelmed with having 4 kids and having to raise them by himself. He just wanted life to go on and dwelling on her death was something he didn't want to do.

I wondered about this too. I agree with kimk. Also, remember in that day and age, grownups didn't talk about feelings like they do today. It was also a thread in the story that gave it character.

Lots of reasons... he was heartbroken and he was so overwhelmed with his grief yet he knew he couldn't dwell on this knowing that he had four kids to take care of... and of course there was the land.. a whole other thing.

King was inwardly ashamed that his wife had an affair with a wealthy man. Telling the children about her death would lead to other questions from the children about their mother, and King was not willing to travel down that path.

I do think he was heartbroken but also he was not a strong verbal communicator. I don't think he understood how it was hurting his children not to talk about his wife and their past. It really did keep the family from growing and developing.

i am clueless about Harris' point in this.

I agree with kimk completely on this issue and in this family, I don't imagine that the children asked many questions or took part in many discussions.

This was a detail best explained by King. How could he let his childrern grow up without a mother and let them think she left them? If he had a reason, I wanted to hear it.

Perhaps he wanted to believe that she was still alive and it was easier to say she left on her own vs having a traumatic death?

I think King was overwhelmed by the death of his wife and having a newborn to care for. He probably didn't know how to tell the children or probably couldn't even speak the words. He probably just said she's gone and the children thought the mother left.

Pride, grief, didn't know how and really didn't talk to his children in regards to anything.

I don't think King had a clue about how to talk to his children about this. Even as adults, none of them seem to have a real understanding of their history or family background. The idea, it seems, is just to carry on in the present, get through each day one way or another.

I didn't really understand why he didn't tell them. Did he believe that he was not Tokey's father and didn't want a lot of questions asked? Did he feel guilty because of what Hazel did with James, even though it was about protecting The Kingdom? Did he just fail to communicate with his children? It doesn't seem like any of them knew their father very well, except maybe Mance.

I think King was of a generation that didn’t talk about anything that was traumatic or shameful. I think also that denial can be strong. He was so involved in work, making money to keep a roof over their heads, etc. perhaps her death was so painful that he couldn’t deal with it or let anyone see what he perceived as weakness “men don’t cry” and a need to keep moving and not stopping to think about what hurts. Keeping family secrets was sooo strong in that family and impaired every relationship