Charlie Marie was married off at the age of 15. She then had two children Tex and Belinda. But Charlie Marie's mother-in-law took them away from her. This event in her life could possibly explain many of her bad habits.
Charlie Marie would drink heavily. It got to the point where her own daughters, Lecia and Mary, had to take of her. Instead of the other way around. This drinking escalated to taking baby asprin then upgrading to diet pills. All the while her daughters are noticing her unmotherly behavior.
Drinking caused Charlie Marie to constantly neglect her children. If she would have paid more attention maybe Mary would not have been sexaully abused twice or intervened on Mary's drug usage. Charlie Marie's actions effected Mary in the long run in many ways, especially in experimenting with drugs.
"I knew a drug dealer...it was particularly hard to talk when you were tripping your brains out on LSD and had gone there only as a last resort to buy something to help you calm down" (Karr 76).
