Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of emotional abuse, child sexual abuse, and rape.

Fern is the novel’s protagonist. She is 15 years old and pregnant when the story begins, thereby becoming one of the novel’s key points of engagement with the societal stigma surrounding teen pregnancy in the 1970s. Rather than receiving her family’s empathy and support, she is forced to endure harsh abuse as her father shouts, “You have ruined your mother’s health” (8). He also accuses her of being a terrible role model for her younger siblings, and he resolves to send her to Wellwood to prevent the “shame” of her pregnancy from becoming public knowledge. In these early moments of the narrative, Fern is blamed for the pregnancy in a way that the baby’s father is not, and Hendrix uses this scenario to draw attention to the fact that boys were rarely held responsible for their actions even though they played an equal role in the sexual encounters that led to pregnancy. 

As the novel unfolds, Fern also demonstrates the disempowerment that women experience in patriarchal societies. She is not allowed to make any of her own choices and is subject to the whims of the adults in charge at Wellwood.