What is wrong with Alice's Mom in "The God of Animals" by Aryn Kyle

        The book "The God of Animals" by Aryn Kyle is about a 12 year old girl who lives on a ranch in the west and all of the troubles she goes through. Her dad buys, sells, trains, and breeds horses while Alice works on the ranch with him. In the beginning of the book, Alice's best friend named Polly drowned in a canal. And the author describes how Alice's sister who was a champion in horse shows, left to run away will a man and she abandoned her family. As you can see, Alice faces a lot of hardships in her life, but one of the most mysterious and interesting hardship that Alice has to go through is the fact that her mother has not come out of her room in the house for all of Alice's life. But Alice doesn't actually know why her mother is like this. I think that her mother actual is sick with some dangerous disease like cancer.

        One reason why I think that Alice's mom has a dangerous disease is because she is always so weak. On page 56, Alice said, " My mother is always complaining that she is going to die any second" This suggests that Alice's mother knows that she has some some sort of weakness or disease that is dangerous because she believes that she can die from whatever it is that is wrong with her. Also she always needs assistance from Alice's dad. This suggests that she cannot accomplish certain tasks without help. All of this suggests that she may have a dangerous disease such as cancer.

        Another reason why I think that Alice's mom has a dangerous disease such as cancer is because she is always inside and she hasn't gone outside for as long as Alice has been alive. I think that this is because she is sensitive to the sun so she can't got outside. I believe this because whenever Alice describes her mother's room, she always states that the shades are closed and that the only light is the light from the television. Also when Alice is asked where her mother is, she always responds by saying something like "she's ill" or "she's not feeling well". And when she was especially pissed at a girl who asked where her mother was, she actually said "she has cancer okay?" I think that when she said this, she wasn't actually lying because she was furious when she said this.

        I think that the evidence in the text absolutely points to Alice's mom having cancer. I think that this is the reason that she is mysteriously staying inside all the time and why she is always in bed. Now readers can truly understand the extent of the hardships that Alice has to go through.