American Pastoral Page #3

This is America.

- Newark is in America.

- [Merry] Grandpa!

Yes, darling.

What? Yes, sweetheart.

Come to the barn to see Count.

Wait till you meet him.

He's so...

[stuttering]

[Sheila] I adore Merry.

I think she's very special.

- Thank you.

- We all do.

She likes coming here.

She told us that.

Very much.

[Sheila] Sometimes when

she's here, I ask her,

"Merry, what terrible thing

do you think would happen

if you stopped stuttering?

How do you think your father

or your mother would feel if you stopped?"

But she can't stop.

I think Merry's stuttering

is a strategy.

A strategy for what?

For avoiding competition

with the beautiful mother,

the beautiful

Miss New Jersey mother,

for winning the handsome father.

This is about our looks?

- Doctor...

- Sheila.

Sheila, stuttering isn't

something that Merry chooses.

It makes her suffer.

Maybe the benefits

outweigh the suffering.

But it's killing us to see her.

It's killing Merry's mother.

Maybe that's one

of the benefits.

Have you thought about how difficult

it must be for Merry

growing up the daughter of someone

who's had so much attention

for something as trivial as beauty?

Maybe the reason Merry stutters

is to stop people from asking her,

"Do you want to be Miss New Jersey

just like your Mommy?"

But who asks her that?

Nobody asks her that.

I'm not Miss New Jersey,

for God's sake. I'm her mother.

It's just that in a highly-pressured

perfectionist family, you...

Who says we're

a highly-perfectionist family?

We're an ordinary family.

What about the physiological basis

for her stuttering?

I read an article where...

I can give you organic theories

if that's what you want,

but that's not the way I've found

I can be most effective.

[Merry] Ouch. Ouch.

I told you to wear your shoes.

[stuttering] You didn't tell me

about how sharp the rocks would be.

No!

[laughs] Dad!

[Yelps]

[crickets chirping]

Do I look... look like

Audrey Hepburn?

Better. You look like

Meredith Levov.

Do you...

- miss Mother?

- Sure I do.

Me, too.

She wanted to come.

She couldn't.

I... I know.

Lady Jane's going to have her calf

any day now. Mom had to be there.

- Yes, Dad. I know.

- She'll come next time.

Have you had a nice time here?

With you?

- Terrible.

- [chuckles]

Two drifters

off to see the world

There's such

a lot of world to see

We're after the same

rainbow's end

Waitin' around the bend

My huckleberry friend

Moon river and me

[Seymour laughs and applauds]

Hold these for your mother.

Daddy...

[stuttering]

Kiss me.

No.

Really, really kiss me.

Kiss me the way you kiss mother.

[imitates stuttering]

No!

And fix your dress.

Oh, I'm sorry, Cookie.

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