Growth and Age as Nonlinear Theme Analysis

In “Future Home of the Living God,” both the main character, Cedar, and her younger sister, Little Mary, seem simultaneously childish and very adult. Both are preparing to make major transitions in life: Cedar is about to become a new mother, and Little Mary is a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. While it can be tempting to think of maturing as a linear process, Erdrich challenges assumptions about the trajectory of growth by showing readers characters who demonstrate traits of different maturity levels and stages of life all at once.

As Cedar prepares for her visit to her birth mother’s home, she makes several observations about herself and about time that set readers up to perceive time and maturing as nonlinear. When Cedar is leaving her adoptive parents’ house, her “childhood training kicks in” and compels her to leave a note to her adoptive parents saying where she’s gone. Since the story hinges on Cedar’s pregnancy and coming transition to motherhood, it is jarring to witness her still bound by behaviors learned as a child. This challenges the idea that transitions between stages of life are definite and linear, and instead shows readers that Cedar’s childhood self is present with her even as she prepares for this major transition as an adult woman. Later, Cedar similarly integrates aspects of the past with aspects of the present and future when she observes that on highways she always feels that she is going “backwards and forwards at the same time.” This is important to recognize, as her sense of time on the highway parallels her destiny as a mother. She will not be able to become a mother herself—or at least not a good one—if she does not return to her birth mother to learn about genetic diseases they may have passed down. However, she still carries pain from feeling as a child that she was abandoned by her birth mother, and thus must revisit and face those childhood feelings before she can enter into motherhood. That the story revolves around Cedar’s relationships with her biological mother and adoptive parents is also significant in itself, as it figures Cedar as a child rather than an adult. Even though Cedar is a fully fledged adult woman and is about to become a mother herself, she is also still somebody’s daughter and child.

Cedar’s younger sister, Little Mary, is a rebellious teenager on the precipice of adulthood. Although she seems to struggle with addiction, and adopts infantilizing behavior, she also seeks to grow, and requests Cedar’s help in the process. Many of Little Mary’s fashion choices confuse and fascinate Cedar, as they represent both her younger sister’s sexuality and her childishness. Little Mary describes her own style as “Gothlolita,” referencing the titular character in the novel Lolita. Little Mary’s infantilized sexuality represents immaturity and maturity at the same time—she engages in adult behaviors, like sex and dating, without having the emotional maturity or wisdom to navigate this territory properly. This speaks to her need to grow up, to develop the skills and knowledge she needs to handle making adult decisions. Because her growth process would include distancing herself from behaviors she is too old for (like wearing childish clothing) and those she is too young for (like sex, drugs, and drinking), Little Mary also exemplifies a trajectory of maturing that is nonlinear.

Importantly, Cedar’s role in Little Mary’s life also speaks to a concept of aging or maturity that doesn’t quite fit within a linear framework. Mary Potts Almost Senior, Cedar and Little Mary’s mother, naively believes that her younger daughter doesn’t engage in any bad behavior (although Cedar immediately realizes that Little Mary abuses drugs), Little Mary lacks the catalyst she needs in order to grow until Cedar comes along. This is represented by the scene at the end of the story, when Cedar helps her younger sister clean up her messy bedroom. In this instance, Cedar provides the moral guidance that Little Mary’s own mother could not provide, in spite of being older and more experienced than Cedar herself. Thus, Cedar interrupts any concept that age is a hierarchy wherein with increased age one necessarily becomes wiser and more able to provide guidance.

While Cedar and Little Mary represent the clearest examples of characters who demonstrate traits of different age groups and maturity levels, all of the characters in the story seem to represent their age in ways that are somewhat arbitrary. For instance, Cedar’s birth mother is called Mary Potts Almost Senior, a name that necessarily makes readers wonder why she is “almost” senior, and who or what her age is measured in relation to. By creating characters whose behaviors incorporate characteristics of various age groups, Erdrich challenges the assumption the growth is linear and instead provides a more complex and realistic picture of age and maturity.