Scarring, Physical and Psychological Takes on Characters in "A Gracious Plenty"

 Finch Nobles, the main character in the novel A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds, is portrayed as being a strong, independent woman who has been alone her entire life due to disfiguring burns she received as a child. She was always shunned by her peers. As she grows older and loses both of her parents, Finch begins caring for the cemetery surrounding her parents’ home and eventually discovers that she can speak with the ghosts of those buried in the graveyard. Finch’s best friend Lucy Armageddon is a ghost in the cemetery who died while still relatively young. It is revealed throughout the novel that Lucy went through a horrible life before ultimately ending her own pain, and finding strength in the afterlife. Through the ghosts, and various occurrences with other people throughout the course of the novel, Finch finds more strength in herself and learns to make her way in the world, and through Finch, Lucy finds her own.

            After reaching adulthood, Finch is still seen as an outcast in her town, by herself as much as the other townsfolk. She accepts this position and has grown accustomed to people’s gasps when they see her mutilated face. As a child, she was bothered deeply by the looks she would get and comments that were made about her. She has grown out of worrying about the thoughts of others about her and cares only what she thinks of herself. She has lived alone since the death of her parents. The other townsfolk, in particular storeowner Rheba, treat Finch as if she were a charity case while at the same time being nasty to her. Finch brushes off the maltreatment and finds solace in taking care of the cemetery she lives in. Finch begins to discover after her mother’s death in her teenage years that she can hear the voices of the dead in the cemetery. She, though a woman looked down upon by society for being abnormal, has an extraordinary gift with which she can communicate with the dead. While Finch lacks good aesthetic and human companionship, she has an unusual and remarkable gift that would inspire people if only they would take the time to get to know her.

            Though Finch was physically scarred, she was not psychologically scarred by her trials in life. Finch grew strong through her tribulations. Lucy Armageddon did not have a similar outcome in her misfortune. In the beginning of her life, and throughout, Lucy was never physically scarred. She, however, was psychologically scarred by the way her father sexually abused her, and the way her mother was never willing to step in and help Lucy when she truly needed someone to intervene. Lucy’s lack of strength eventually led to her acting with self-destructive mannerisms and allowing others to harm and scar her both physically and psychologically. Lucy was extremely vulnerable, unlike Finch. While abuse by others built up Finch’s walls, it tore down Lucy’s. The ongoing abuse eventually culminated in Lucy’s suicide, which could be seen as an ultimate lack of strength or as an ultimate show of strength depending on the way one would view it. Either way, Lucy is more at peace with herself in the afterlife than she was in life. Lucy’s life was a trial as Finch’s life is a trial. Lucy ran away from her parents in an attempt to take control of her situation. While Finch’s strength is to brush off and be able to move on quickly from harsh treatment of others to her, Lucy’s strength was in the way that she was abused in different ways for so many years and that she dealt with her problems and the stress for so long. Lucy’s suicide in a way shows her strength. She was strong enough to be able to go through with the act of taking her own life. Lucy demonstrates just as much strength in the afterlife as she did in life by the way that she would not give up on proving to her mother the true cause of her death. She needs her mother to accept that she truly did have horrible experiences in her life and that she was not the perfect child her mother saw her as- in actuality, she had such a bad life that she felt the need to end it all. Lucy feels the need for her mother to realize that to truly, at last, be at peace.