Ann’s Passage from Outsider to Witness

The War of the Roses

This thread follows Ann’s changing relationship to the household and the way her longing for a place in it gives way to a witness’s distress.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

A Student Seeking Room A Student Seeking Room from "The War of the Roses". A Student Seeking Room An Arrangement for Study Ann accepts room and board with the Roses while pursuing a history degree at Georgetown University.

A Student Seeking Room from "The War of the Roses". A Student Seeking Room An Arrangement for Study Ann accepts room and board with the Roses while pursuing a history degree at Georgetown University.

A Student Seeking Room An Arrangement for Study Ann accepts room and board with the Roses while pursuing a history degree at Georgetown University. The opportunity gives her financial support and access to a household unlike the one she left behind. An Observer’s Position She enters as an employee and outsider, carefully learning the family’s customs. Her first impressions are shaped by the house’s abundance and by her desire not to jeopardize her place there.

Trust Earned Through Care Trust Earned Through Care from "The War of the Roses". Trust Earned Through Care Practical Help Ann supports Eve Rose after academic failure and helps Josh Rose face disappointment about basketball.

Trust Earned Through Care from "The War of the Roses". Trust Earned Through Care Practical Help Ann supports Eve Rose after academic failure and helps Josh Rose face disappointment about basketball.

Trust Earned Through Care Practical Help Ann supports Eve Rose after academic failure and helps Josh Rose face disappointment about basketball. She earns the children’s confidence by treating their anxieties seriously. Emotional Belonging Her role expands beyond supervision, and she begins to feel like a member of the family. That sense of belonging becomes complicated as her admiration for Oliver Rose deepens.

Desire Becomes Action Desire Becomes Action from "The War of the Roses". Desire Becomes Action A Brief Opening Ann and Oliver Rose kiss in the library on Christmas Eve, then separate when Barbara Rose returns.

Desire Becomes Action from "The War of the Roses". Desire Becomes Action A Brief Opening Ann and Oliver Rose kiss in the library on Christmas Eve, then separate when Barbara Rose returns.

Desire Becomes Action A Brief Opening Ann and Oliver Rose kiss in the library on Christmas Eve, then separate when Barbara Rose returns. The interruption leaves Ann hopeful but also aware of the ethical and emotional danger. An Affair Under Pressure Later, Ann and Oliver Rose begin a sexual relationship. Ann wants intimacy, but Oliver Rose is grieving and uncertain, making the relationship vulnerable to the conflict surrounding the divorce.

Choosing to Leave Choosing to Leave from "The War of the Roses". Choosing to Leave The Affair’s Exposure Risk Ann learns how dangerous her involvement has become as Oliver Rose confronts the detective and Mercedes dies.

Choosing to Leave from "The War of the Roses". Choosing to Leave The Affair’s Exposure Risk Ann learns how dangerous her involvement has become as Oliver Rose confronts the detective and Mercedes dies.

Choosing to Leave The Affair’s Exposure Risk Ann learns how dangerous her involvement has become as Oliver Rose confronts the detective and Mercedes dies. She cannot treat the household’s battle as an abstract marital problem any longer. A Request to Stay Ann considers leaving, but Oliver Rose asks her to remain for the children’s sake. Her decision to stay is driven by care as much as by affection, though she recognizes that both motives keep her inside the crisis.

The Last Appeal The Last Appeal from "The War of the Roses". The Last Appeal Concern Becomes Action After weeks without contact, Ann returns to the house and enters despite the visible signs of danger.

The Last Appeal from "The War of the Roses". The Last Appeal Concern Becomes Action After weeks without contact, Ann returns to the house and enters despite the visible signs of danger.

The Last Appeal Concern Becomes Action After weeks without contact, Ann returns to the house and enters despite the visible signs of danger. The traps injure and frighten her, confirming that the home has become hostile to anyone inside it. Witness to the Ending Ann urges the parents to remember their children and later reaches the collapsed house. She sees Oliver Rose and Barbara Rose dead together, while Eve Rose and Josh Rose remain alive among the wreckage.

When Ann arrives in Washington, D.C.

During Ann’s first summer with the children

From the first Christmas after the separation into the following months

After the surveillance equipment is discovered

On the night Eve Rose and Josh Rose return home