(=^ｪ^=)

[akje]

Decided to set aside the sequel to The Anarchist  since no one's reading the first book anyhow. They say it takes at least ten years to become an overnight success, so I have that long to finish it. In the meantime there are too many other plot bunnies hopping around. ／(^ᆺ^=)＼

Instead, I think I'll attempt a NaNo novel about the Quiverfull movement.

The Characters:

Michael:

Selfish and self-righteous tyrant who expects his family to drop to their knees submissively whenever he claps his hands. Like his father, he went into the navy so that the taxpayers would pay for his enormous family.

He's guilty of the unforgivable sin: he wants to take God's place. He expects his family to treat him as if he were God, rather than treating others the way he would like to be treated. Jesus said He came to serve, not to be served, but Michael only wants to be served. At some point he asks, "Quis ut Deus?" (who is like God?) only to answer it himself, "I am."


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Naomi:

Like her mother, she was raised to play the martyr and obey her husband as if he were God. She's terrified of his domestic discipline, however, and resents her husband having the right to judge her when Jesus said to judge not lest ye be judged. She eventually becomes an atheist, and divorces her husband when he's imprisoned for murdering their youngest daughter.


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Hope:

Firstborn and eldest daughter. Resents having to be submissive and subservient to her younger brother Jude just because he's a boy. Turns out to be a lesbian. When her parents find out, they send her away to Hephzibah House to learn proper Christian behavior, where she's horribly abused.


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Grace:

Is thoroughly indoctrinated and loves the patriarchy lifestyle. Wants to be taken care of by a man all her life and have him do all her thinking for her, but her father feels threatened by other dominant males so he chooses weak, indecisive husbands for his daughters. She ends up dirt poor, with seven children and a husband who can't earn a living. She tells herself this is God's will.


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Jude:

Uses his position as eldest son to tyrannize his brothers and sisters. Molests the youngest girls and gets sent to an Outward Bound type camp for Christian youth. His brothers and sisters resent him for getting to go when they can't. The camp is more of a reward than a punishment, and merely reinforces his belief that he has a God-given right to dominate and abuse others.


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Elijah:

Self-harms in secret.


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Mercy:

The main character of the book, along with her future husband, Tristan. Their parents arrange a marriage for them against their wills at a retreat that later gets shut down for human trafficking. Tristan has a plan to escape the biblical patriarchy movement. He's a nice boy who doesn't want to be domineering and overbearing like his dad; rebels against his father's ideas that he act like a "real man." Tristan doesn't want to see a smart girl with personality like Mercy turned into a submissive baby-making machine.

Mercy and Tristan end up having only one child, whom they lavish with love and kindness.


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Patience:

Gets molested by her eldest brother Jude, but vigorously defends him when their church community finds out. Believes that God has a marvelous plan for her life, and that He wouldn't let her get molested unless that was part of the plan.

Marries a man who's caught masturbating in a porn shop, but she defends him and honestly believes God wants her to be married to a perv. God does not make mistakes, so she doesn't approve of divorce and believes she can rehabilitate her husband if she's just submissive enough.


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Purity:

Gets molested by her eldest brother Jude, but vigorously defends him when their church community finds out due to fear of a spanking from their father. Is the first daughter allowed to go to a purity ball, since Michael couldn't afford it before then.


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Zacharias:

Zack is a bed-wetter due to his traumatic childhood and his fear of his father, so his dad punishes him by taking all his toys away and making him give them to charity. He comes home and cries and cries.


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Faith:

When she's four years old, her father accidentally kills her during a spanking. He's arrested and thrown in prison, where he acts as if he's the prison priest and ministers to the other inmates, trying to reform them. Another inmate eventually kills him. ٩(˘◡˘)۶