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In the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Keepers of the House, Shirley Ann Grau focuses on the belief that sacrificing every aspect of one’s life for someone else will ultimately lead to destruction. Margaret sacrifices her relationship with her children to allow them to live as white individuals: which is something she always desired as a child. She yearns to give them a better life than the one she was given. Margaret forsakes her own happiness to instill a better life for her children while intentionally deceiving the outer world. However, as Grau demonstrates, the best intentions can still often lead to the worst results. Often the intention becomes skewed and twisted, leading to the downfall of all the characters involved. By attempting to provide her children with a better life by deceiving the society around them, Margaret loses the trust and love of her children which ultimately leads to her own demise; her children view her sacrificial act as one of abandonment.

Through Grau’s fictional Southern town, she demonstrates the racial tensions that Margaret attempts to evade by depicting her children as white. The name of the town is never mentioned, Grau uses the anonymousness of the town to symbolize the entire South’s afflictions toward African Americans. Furthermore, it is a model of a problem faced throughout the United States. Margaret is half white and half black, but her features lack any type of white resemblance. She desired to show those around her that she had white blood and to elevate her status in society. However, her children have fair white skin, red hair, and freckles and differ greatly in appearance from their mother. Margaret saw the chance for them to have the same privileges and rights that white people did during this time period. Margaret intentionally deceives the world outside of her small community to cloak her children in a white disguise. She willingly sacrifices her relationship by cutting off all communication. They go off to boarding school, and she refuses to write, visit, or see them. Margaret has faced countless social injustices in the Howland town. African Americans are second class citizens, they are looked down upon, cannot marry white people, and are separated completely from the white half of society. Although Margaret’s intention is to save her children from social injustices, the outcome is still one of pain and fury. Grau demonstrates that only pain and destruction will come from dishonesty. After sacrificing her role as a mother and seeing her sacrifice end in waste, Margaret loses herself.

Grau demonstrates that intentional deceit will lead to the downfall of those involved and illustrates that people should not sacrifice all of themselves for another person, or they risk losing their identity and purpose. After William Howland dies, Margaret leaves the ancestral Howland home to move back to New Church. Nina, Crissy, and Robert continue to blame her for abandoning them and for acting “ashamed” of her race, not understanding the sacrifice Margaret made. Nina slips back into Margaret’s life, to parade her black husband in Margaret's face as well. Margaret is infuriated; her sacrifice was in vain. Nina was willing to throw away everything Margaret did for her because of vengeance. Margaret understood that her children would most likely hate her, and she accepted it. However, she realizes that she sacrificed those most important to her for nothing. Her sacrifice leads to her own spiral into darkness. The scorn of Nina’s sacrifice kills her. William is gone, and her children have spit at the gift she tried to provide. In the end, she physically dies when freezing in the forest at night; however, she has been spiritually dead since her children ravaged her sacrifice.

Margaret’s choices light a path of destruction: beginning and ending with her. Nina gives up the chance to live as Margaret always wanted. Robert continues to live the lie, hiding his identity from his wife, but festering in vengeance. Crissy rejects the white lifestyle, moving to Paris which is known as “the haven of African Americans” at the time. Margaret gave up her heart, her soul, her family to give her children a chance, but it ends up being in vain. Grau demonstrates that by sacrificing one’s entire entity, one risks losing oneself in the process. Many people are willing to give up their lives, opinions, and ideals for others, and they risk losing everything if the other person rejects them. Furthermore, deception only leads to more pain and misery. Grau demonstrates that the truth will eventually out itself. Regardless of intention, deception will only lead to pain and loss: strengthening the hold of darkness upon mankind.