Allegedly

Jackson’s narrative and excerpts from various fictional experts describe Momma as narcissistic and manipulative. Craig Fulton, the fictitious author of the fictitious book, Identifying the Real Killer, describes “compensatory narcissism” as the condition when a deeply insecure person creates: 

a grand self-image in an attempt to compensate for what is lacking internally. They present this façade to the world in order to hide the emptiness they feel, thus falling in love with the idea of themselves. But, if you threaten their self-image—threaten to expose the thing they love most, themselves—they will react, often in a hostile manner (139). 

Fulton’s excerpt follows the scene in which Mary tells Momma they need to address the issues of Ray and Alyssa, a conversation that will “threaten to expose” Momma. Momma diverts, manipulating Mary by telling her something she knows Mary is dying to hear—that Mary has always had her father’s eyes. It’s especially cruel because Momma withholds Mary’s father’s identity and uses it as a tool when useful. 

Mary also oscillates between a state of reality and delusion. At the outset, Mary is a survivor who has lived a short but difficult life with Momma, as well as in jail and in the group home. Given Mary’s ability at a young age to survive sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, it is evident she’s developed a set of tools, whether consciously or subconsciously, to protect herself and enable her survival. The tools—cunning, lying, manipulation—which are not dissimilar to Momma’s, are a response to her mother’s mental state, which points to unpredictable, dangerous behavior and bouts of neglect and abuse. The confusing patterns and corresponding physiological and emotional responses elicited in Mary are what have shaped her understanding of the people and the world around her. Mary develops aberrations in her social-emotional development that dictate how she responds to the people around her. Mary’s premeditated attack on Kelly, her manipulation of those who have only done right by her, and her malice of forethought in not touching Momma’s cross when she buried it all signal the possible onset of mental illness. 

Like her mother, Mary’s view of the people and situations around her becomes distorted at an early age. Mary had always been desperate for the love of a mother figure like Mrs. Richardson, who had given Mary a view into what it would be like to have the “normal” mother that Mary wanted. Mrs. Richardson read to Mary, gave her gifts, and told her that she hoped to someday have a daughter like Mary; this was everything five-year-old Mary wanted and needed to hear. In Mary’s mind, having Mrs. Richardson adopt Bean would finally make them family.