Stone Yard Devotional

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying and death.

Throughout Stone Yard Devotional, the protagonist struggles with feelings of guilt and regret about her relationship with her mother and her treatment of Helen Parry. As a teenager, she viewed Helen with disdain. Like the community at large, she abandoned and abused her. As an adult, the protagonist recognizes how she hurt Helen and regrets her actions. When she first encounters Helen after high school, her wrongs come back to her, and she seeks forgiveness. Helen, who barely recognizes her, refuses to grant it, leaving the protagonist in an unsteady situation: “[She] left standing there in the wilderness with my regret and my remorse still around me, suspended in the air. Not denounced, not forgiven. It made me admire her, if I am honest, this refusal to alleviate my discomfort” (116-17). Helen’s refusal to forgive the protagonist for her past actions only amplifies the guilt the protagonist feels. She ignores the social expectation to grant forgiveness, and instead, she forces the protagonist to live with her guilt. With her apology rejected, the protagonist continues through life, preoccupied by the burden of her actions.