In the United States, print and electronic media advertisements are full of images of the perfect family: usually proud parents with a happy and healthy child. New parents expect the fulfillment of a high-quality relationship with their newborn. So what happens when this fixation of happiness goes awry? How do the parents cope with failure when their child is born with some sort of imperfection? "Wednesday's Child" by Joyce Carol Oates shows how one family succumbs to deceit and immorality due to the chronic disability of their only child.
             At first glance, it seems as if the family couldn't be any happier. The father has become successful at a young age. The mother is attractive and has anything she could ever want. Their beautiful daughter Brenda, at the tender age of six, has two loving parents who adore her. All of Arthur's friends are trying to match what he has achieved by attaining more and more worldly possessions that in the end are meaningless. This seemingly perfect family however, is on the verge of destruction. The parent's hopelessness leads to thoughts of divorce and wanting to abandon their only child. Brenda's parents feel this way because they have let their daughter's disability get the best of them and destroy their lives.
             All Arthur ever dreamed of was a successful career and a nice home. All he ever wanted was to be married to an attractive woman that loved him for who he was, therefore creating a lasting marriage. Everything that he wanted, he had, except for a healthy daughter. His daughter was born with autism, a disease that sucked the emotional life out of her. The reality of autism, hard to imagine until it happens to someone close, made Brenda seem distant and lifeless.
             Arthur's daughter never once showed any affection towards him. Arthur tried and tried to break through Brenda's invisible shield. He tried so hard and so many times t...