Note: I do not give a summary of "Vandals" and there is information that will ruin the story, so I strongly suggest that if you have not read the story do not read this blog.
In Alice Munro's 1994 short story "Vandals" two prominent questions that arise are: a) was Bea aware that Ladner was sexually abusing Liza, and b) why did Liza trash Bea and Ladner's home. With regards to the first question I personally believe that Bea was aware at some level of Ladner's abuse towards Liza. Though there are no direct suggestions that Bea knew (as there so rarely is within Murno's work) there are minor hints that whether subconsciously or consciously Bea was aware. The major hint is Bea's donation of money toward Liza's college fund, "It was her gave me some money,' Liza continued, as if it was something he out to know, 'to go to college. I never asked her. She just phoned up out of the blue and says she wants to'"(370). This random large donation of money suggests a extreme feeling of guilt, presumably guilt about not protecting Liza (and possibly Kenny) from Ladner. The other hints are small and are controversial. Liza, as a child, expresses a deep trust and hope in Bea upon her arrival to Ladner's house and life, even more than that she believes that "Bea could spread safety" that she was "the woman who could rescue them - who could make them all, keep them all good" (386). This suggests to me that in some way or another Liza must have tried, either successfully or unsuccessfully, to communicate to Bea what was happening and that she was the only person who could protect Kenny and herself.
This argument that Bea was aware of the abuse can fall apart when looking closely at the beginning of the story, when it is from Bea's perspective. A classmate of mine argued that at this time in the story and in her life Bea seems to not only be hyper aware of herself and her past actions. So the questions arises that if she did know about the abuse why does she not bring it up now? My answer to this is that this is a woman who has been repressing and denying the truth of Ladner's secret affections the whole time that she has been with him and there is mention of her increased drinking. I believe that as a result of her denial and drinking she is unable, still, to acknowledge the truth of Ladner's abuse of Liza.
The argument regarding the extent of Bea's knowledge could go on forever and though Munro is still alive it seems unlikely that she would ever divulge the truth and who would want her to? It would ruin the mystery and reality of this story.
Now to the second question: why does Liza trash or vandalize Ladner and Bea's house? The majority of my classmates believed that Liza's actions were a reaction to Bea's inaction. That this is her way of getting back at Bea, at a particularly difficult time in her life with Ladner's recent death, in a subtle way. I, however, disagree with this. Though the reader is unaware of exactly how long Ladner was abusing Liza it is suggested and arguable that the abuse persisted for years. Along with her own abuse it is arguable that Ladner similarly abused Kenny. When Liza goes looking for Bea she passes a beech tree near Ladner's house with "L" for Ladner and Liza, "K" for Kenny and "PDP" carved in the bark. When Bea first sees this and asks what it means Kenny replies "pull down pants", Ladner brushes it off as the remark of a "dirty-minded juvenile" but with the knowledge of his treatment of Liza this outburst of Kenny's seems suspicious. Also, if Ladner was in fact assaulting Kenny as well, his accidental death could possibly be a suicide. The details of his death could support this reading: "Kenny was dead - he had been killed when he was fifteen, in one of the big teenage car crashes that seemed to happen every spring, involving drunk, often unlicensed drivers, temporarily stolen cars, fresh gravel on the country roads, crazy speeds" (370).
It is also important to note that the house was originally Ladner's and it was the location of the sexual abuse: "And places where Liza thinks there is a bruise on the ground, a tickling and shame in the grass" (385). Reading the information that Munro provides the reader than suggests to me that Liza is vandalizing the house as a way of getting back at Ladner. So why didn't she do something before? It is not unusual for those who have been assaulted, especially when they are children, to be unable to rebel against their abusers so it is likely that with the death of Ladner Liza is finally able to reclaim, or try to, a part of herself that he stole. So I read Liza's trashing of the house as a reclaiming of herself from Ladner; she is destroying his home, his thing and everything that she associates with him. Then the secondary reason, perhaps, for her trashing the house is to get back at Bea for doing nothing to stop Ladner.
Munro,
Alice. “Vandals”. Carried Away. Toronto: Everyman's
Library, 2006. 357-387.
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