Lucy's letters from home brighten her difficult relationship with her mother. As Lucy takes to support her mother's unopened letters on her dresser, she shows a defiance that also betrays her daughterly attachment: she doesn't discard them and doubts the longing she'd feel if she saw her mother's words. When Lucy finally reads the letter listing her father's death and her mother's disaster, she comes to her mother's financial aid but also releases her anger in a letter home, once again representing her mixed feelings. After burning the letters she's saved, Lucy finds herself able to move on. She fixes to leave Lewis and Mariah's apartment and sends a letter home, stating empathy for her mother but also breaking with her by giving an untrue address. Throughout the novel, letters serve as markers of Lucy's struggle to make a new life for herself by dodging her past.