Not Easily Broken (1-50)

Summary
The book starts off in the Middle of Action. It opens up with Clarice and Dave Johnson being in a car accident. Dave is conscience and able to get out the car, but since the other car hit them on the passenger side, Clarice is jammed inside the car. This whole process of the accident started when Clarice had a dinner party to go to for her job, and Dave was running late from work. Clarice started yelling at him and they got into an argument about how he was always late for everything. Dave and Clarice then got into the car, about after short amount of time of silence, Clarice starts up again and as Dave is driving on his green light signal, a kid runs a red light and hits them. Clarice's leg is badly broken in some many places and she ends up getting surgery to fix the broken bones. Clarice is a very strong and independent women and likes to do things on her own, but Dave wants to help her and wants her to let him be the the husband that she needs but Clarice can't find the heart to let him be there for her. Clarice has another problem which is she doesn't like to let people know that she is in pain or she has any problems with her. She basically just puts on an act in front of everyone. On the other note, Dave is a coach of a little league baseball team for the kids who don't really have much to do but get into trouble. I believe that Dave is a very kind and open-hearted person and I think that all he wants is to be there for the people that he loves and to try to make a difference in kids who don't have it as good as other kids lives.


Quotation
"Just about the first thing she could remember was her mother talking about how you had to depend on yourself" (Jakes 37).

Reaction
As I read this quote, a question automatically popped in my head, If you depend on yourself way too much, couldn't that effect your ability to let someone else help you? In this case Clarice depends on herself so much that she doesn't have the courage to just push her ego aside and let Dave help her. I understood the fact that she is a strong and independent women but you can still ask for help when you need it and still be strong and independent. I agree with what her mother said about "depend on yourself" but that doesn't mean to push everyone out of your way when you know you need help, just let people help you and you can still be dependant on yourself. What I think that Clarice needs to understand is that she can't go through this healing process by herself she needs Dave and she needs to let him be the husband that he needs and wants to be.