memoiloveit

7 years ago

Innocent, a mystery and historical fiction book, by Eric Walters, is about a girl named Elizabeth Anne Roberts (Betty), who is an orphan since she was three years old. One night, there is a fire at the orphanage Betty stays at, resulting in the orphans splitting up. The younger ones are adopted by families, but the older ones, like Betty, are scattered throughout America in 1964 to work. Betty is a maid for the wealthy Remington family. Before she leaves for the Remington estate, Betty’s caretaker, Mrs. Hazelton, leaves Betty with an envelope with papers about when her father was convicted of killing her mother when Betty was three years old. This is the reason nobody would adopt Betty when she lived in the orphanage. While Betty works at the Remington estate, she learns that her mother used to work there as a maid too and that she looks and acts exactly like her mother. Through this all, Betty uses her breaks to visit her father in prison and has to figure out if her father actually did kill her mother, or if he was set up and got convicted, with the help of her new friend, David, a police officer. Throughout the book, Mrs. Remington and one of her sons say that it was Betty’s father that killed her mother and that they tried to stop her mother from running away to be with her father because Betty’s mother supposedly believed only positive things about people. In the end, when a gun is pointed at Betty by Mrs. Remington’s son, Betty realizes that it is him who killed her mother and that Mrs. Remington set up her father. A quote from Innocent that connects to its overall message is, “...I’m not going to let anybody harm you…” (Walters 242) This quote connects to the book’s overall message because the overall message is to trust no one, especially those who protect you the most because they might be not who they seem to be. Mrs. Remington and her son were like the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” because they pretended to be the “good guys” by earning Betty’s trust. Betty is deceived the whole time and almost killed, until the other workers of the Remington estate saved her, made sure Mrs. Remington and her son were sent to prison and made sure Betty’s father is let out of jail. I can connect this book to my life because it shows how people should be more careful of others. I learned through this book that you can not really rely on anyone, you have to be independent, and that you should judge people carefully. If you are not careful enough, you can put your life in danger. In Innocent, Mrs. Remington and her son killed Betty’s mother for an evil reason. “He [Mrs. Remington’s son] nodded his head. ‘Really, she did is to herself. If she’d listened to me, it all could have been different.’” Betty asks, “...Why did you do it?” “‘She [Betty’s mother] rejected me, told me to leave...and then…’” (Walters 249) Another example of how people should be more careful of others is when Betty’s father has to gain Betty’s trust throughout the story, but Betty does the opposite of trusting the wrong people. Instead, she does not trust the right person. I also did not judge him correctly either since anybody in prison would say they are innocent and should not have been sent to prison, but he actually is not lying. Betty not remembering much about her father contributes to her not trusting him but wanting to trust him, which is how I realize that you should only trust the people you really know if you have to trust someone.