"Lambs"

One section that I understand...

Chapter 4 where the mother freaks out on her kids: The grandfather has the dialogue at first, then the mother starts disciplining her children and the girl is back to narrating. I think I understand the "religious rearing" aspect. The grandfather walked into his daughter's house and sees that his grandchildren are not behaving according to what he feels is the proper Christian way. Grandpa and the kids are having a normal conversation until Mom gets back, and then the kids go off to play because kids get bored listening to adult conversations. The grandfather's judgment weighs heavily on the mother, who then takes her anger out on the children. It's sad, but understandable why the mother would punish her children in this instance. She was raised to act a certain way and when her children don’t act that way, she feels guilty for letting her father down. She was forced to adhere to all the Christian doctrines when she was a child, and now she probably looks back on her childhood and wants more than to punish her children all the time. It is an example of the mother's conflicting ideas of spirituality, which the girl seems to be having as well.

One section that gave me difficulty...

The girl drawing on the picture of Jesus, drawing blood coming from his eye (knows that she’s defacing god's image): "I'd like to hear him crying, screaming most of all. How bad was it Jesus? Mr. Jesus Christ. I thought Christ was his second name.” It looks like she is making Christ suffer more by drawing more blood on him, giving him more wounds, digging in with the marker. Is the girl just trying to wrap her head around God? Or is she grappling with his dual nature/ humanity of God? It seems like she wants to know and understand him. She could be trying to relate to him by asking him how much it hurt.