Clock Dance

The first section of Clock Dance explores a few days in Willa’s childhood, showing how her family adjusts to her unpredictable mother’s most recent tantrum. This is not the first time Willa and Elaine’s mother has stormed out and left the family by themselves, but it is the first time she’s stayed out overnight, creating a new sense of responsibility for Willa, who is just 11. This snapshot of a few formative days in Willa’s childhood provides important characterization of both Willa and her parents. This chapter also introduces several key themes of the novel. 

As she will do throughout her life, Willa puts the emotions of others above her own. Willa embraces responsibility for Elaine and the household, reading Elaine a bedtime story, getting herself and Elaine ready for school, and doing her best to braid Elaine’s hair the way their mother does. She feels “capable and efficient” (18) completing these tasks. Unlike those around her, who act on their feelings—Willa’s mother runs off whenever she is angry, Elaine cries and complains that the braids are “all floppy!” (18), Willa’s father assumes that Willa can handle whatever the fallout of her mother’s absences is—Willa represses her sadness to perform acts of service. Although she is also worried, Willa reassures Elaine that their mother will be home soon, acting strong out of a sense of duty. Willa goes on to sit with Elaine during school hours, missing her favorite class, and does the dishes for her father, who has left them in the sink from the previous night. 

However, Willa cannot fill the role ordinarily occupied by an adult. The buildup of Willa’s suppressed emotions comes to a head when Willa and Elaine mess up the pudding they’re attempting to make. Rather than reacting generously, the way Willa has to the situation, her father coldly analyzes the girls’ mistakes, lecturing Willa while oblivious of her distress until she lashes out. This string of events introduces the theme of The Need for Appreciation. Willa acknowledges later that “[h]er father had not said one word of thanks for how she’d washed the dishes from earlier” (32), despite having ample time to notice they’ve been washed. When Willa realizes her efforts haven’t been appreciated, she withdraws herself and remains distant, even after her mother returns home. This dynamic—the mild-mannered but blinkered man whose lack of emotional attunement drives a woman to fury—gives readers a hint into the relationship between Willa’s parents. Willa’s inability to reach her father even in anger also cements the avoidance and capitulating way she will deal with conflict in the future. At the end of the chapter, Willa again puts aside her emotions, lying to her father about being overtired—a parallel of her father’s excuse for her mother’s outbursts—instead of explaining why his response to her pudding failure made her upset. Willa avoids conflict rather than engaging with it to maintain the comfort of those around her. 

Willa’s emotional suppression shows how she makes herself small for the comfort of others. The Drawbacks of Passivity theme is explored through her interactions with her family and with her friend, Sonya. In the first section of the chapter, neither Willa nor Sonya wants to speak first while trying to sell candy bars, but Sonya insists Willa is “much better with grownups” (7), forcing Willa to bear the burden of talking to their potential customers. Willa gets her passivity from her father, whom her mother sneeringly describes as “Saint Melvin” (11)—a man who has “never even raised his voice” (24). The drawbacks of this behavior in family dynamics are evident: He does nothing to stop Willa’s mother, who “would shout at him and stamp her foot, or slap Willa in the face, [...] or shake Elaine like Raggedy Ann” (23). Willa’s father’s conflict avoidance enables their mother’s abusive behavior, as he remains willfully blind to her faults.