Commonwealth

Bert, who grew up in Virginia, is stunned by the abundant growth of oranges in sunny California. Father Joe Mike, who grew up in California, nonetheless finds it miraculous when the guests bring a non-stop supply of oranges to Beverly’s kitchen to be juiced and transformed into cocktails for the party. After Bert and Teresa divorced, Jeanette keeps freshly squeezed orange juice in the refrigerator a reminder of what life used to be like when their father still lived with them: “It was a lot of work but she did it because orange juice was the way it used to be in their family” (151). The marvelous bounty of oranges is in direct contradiction to the rest of California, which seems to be divided up and contained: “Californians were used to their own houses and cards and lawns” (243). In contrast, the Commonwealth of Virginia is characterized by its fluidity of boundaries. “In Virginia, the six children had shared two bedrooms and a single cat, picked food from one another’s plates and indiscriminately used the same bath towels, but in California everything was separate” (242). The Virginia summers allow lives to mingle together, allowing the blended families to spend their summers learning to grow up together.