Why does Lily feel the need to carry around mouse bones with her?
Lily finds the mouse bones under her bed when she is storing her mother’s belongings. Therefore, Lily makes some odd connection between the mouse bones and the sentimental day on which she learned of her mother’s love for her. Lily is in an emotionally heightened state, and she therefore displays some seemingly irrational behavior. After Lily finishes babysitting the mouse bones, she determines that she may have just needed to nurse something. But she might have intuited that the bones could be from a mouse Deborah once saw. In addition, the bones could symbolize Deborah’s dead body. • How does Lily’s idea of a mother change throughout the novel? Answer: In the beginning of the novel, Lily associates the idea of “mother” only with a legal and biological connection between a woman and her child. She displays this definition when she dreams of Rosaleen adopting her and becoming her “real mother.” But Lily’s relationship with her biological mother is based on memories and uncertainty. Lil
