Betty

Content Warning: This section mentions depression, self-harm, attempted suicide, child sexual abuse and rape, termination of a pregnancy, drug overdose, and death.

For the three sisters, A Faraway Place symbolizes hopes and dreams. Landon builds the stage because Cherokee women always built stages on which they would sing to scare off predators and nourish the garden. The existence of the stage is an expression of Landon’s hope to carry on his culture and traditions. The girls name it A Faraway Place to signify that it feels like an entirely different world in which they can make art, play, and live out their dreams. Describing the power of A Faraway Place, Betty says that “the whole world [i]s right there and it [i]s large enough for the dreams of three girls” (69). They do impossible things there, like resurrect the dead, ride on the backs of flying birds, and share a single imagination.

As the realities of adulthood begin to intrude on their worlds, the girls turn to A Faraway Place for comfort and hope. When their mother cuts her wrists, Fraya cuts two slits into the stage in the hope that it will heal their mother. When Fraya cuts her wrist, Betty cuts the stage again.