The Gift

tell you what happens next. The omniscient narrator’s point of view allows the reader to feel the emotions of all the characters, as well as see both sides of a conversation as it is happening. The setting is in a 1950’s small Midwestern town. Children play in the streets, on the skating pond, and attend the movie house. The story is told over a time period of several months, from December 1952 through December 1953. The book opens with the story of the death of the five-year-old who is adored by her family. The novel ends with a surprise gift to that family.

Maribeth comes to the Whittaker family and gives them the gift of a new life, her child. She persuades the Whittaker’s to adopt her baby, knowing they will love the child and give it all it could ever need. Although she and Tommy are in love, she will not marry him, because she says they are too young. She wants to finish high school, go to college, then get married and have children. The Whittaker’s view Maribeth as a “visiting angel,” (274) one who loved them and was able to fill a space in their lives left by one very special child. I believe Danielle Steel intends for the reader to recognize three separate “gifts” in this novel. The first is the little girl Annie, who was born late in the life of her parents, and who died at a very early age due to an illness. The second gift in the novel is that of Maribeth, who comes to town and helps bring Tommy back to his normal life. He, in turn, presents Maribeth to his family, and the whole family is renewed by her gift to them of her newborn child. Throughout the story, Maribeth tells Tommy that some people are only here for short periods of time,