I'm glad too. We're completely unlike most families, in the fact that we started out royally screwed up and have progressively mellowed out and normalized.

As to how Eva expressed Franklin's reactions to things...in the version of events she gives us, he is the prototypical American father. Everything is cubbied away in his mind, he has a category for everyone and everything, and he prefers the stereotypes. Honestly, I liked him at the beginning, but the more she wrote about him the more I felt like she had settled and that he was extremely pathetic. This might be because he has a lot of the same values and principles that my father has that I find to be absolute rubbish, so I have no empathy for a character-type such as his. As for Celia...I can't but feel horrible for such an innocent little girl. I was a lot like her when I was little: completely trusting in the fact that my older siblings knew what was best for me, and that I could trust them...I soon learned that this was illogical and that my best bet was to look out for myself and grow up really fast. For some reason, she stays innocent throughout the novel, and never realizes that Kevin will be her downfall in the end. I wish I could snatch her character out of this situation, because she is the perfect little girl; it made my heart ache when she would things like, "but you're my friendddddddd," and then to see how she was finished off. She's an idea really, an example a lot of children and adults in the world should not emulate. She is a martyr to childhood innocence and wonder, with a lasting mantra: stick to your own guns, or you will get marred by anyone you trust too much.