Marriage and family instability define the early lives of children in the novel. All three central families experience major upheavals. The narrator’s experience of losing his mother shapes his early life and contributes to his sympathy for Cletus. The two boys meet daily in an unfinished house, a symbol of families in flux. The narrator is adapting to a new stepmother and a painful move from the childhood home he associates with his mother. Cletus has recently been moved to town by his mother, who is preparing to divorce his father. Both boys are living in temporary locations that are not their homes.

The narrator’s family, like his house, is under construction. The Smiths and Wilsons, by contrast, are falling apart. The families are locked in a crisis of marriage and infidelity. The fates of the children hinge on the actions of their parents, but the parents (other than Marie Wilson) never prioritize the well-being of their children. When Marie tells Lloyd she is moving out with their four daughters, he responds that the affair with Fern has made him happy for the first time in his life. In the Smith family, Clarence’s abuse and Fern’s affair with his best friend poison their household and turn the children into collateral damage.