Willie and Nancy relationships...

I was thinking recently that Willie and Nancy sibling relationships never seemed to have existed for me.

I was re-watching "The return of Nellie", and Willie is very cold and even distant from Nancy. Did you notice that when Harriet is awake, waiting for Nels to find her little girl who had escaped, Willie only saids that he is very sleepy and wants to go to bed? This always amazed me...He is not even scared about Nancy's fate? Certainly, she is not her full-blood sister, but other adoptive siblings seems to go very well along. Albert, Cassandra and James loves each other, and when James runs away home, is Albert who goes away to look for him..Cassandra and Carrie are always together, and if at first she was a little jealous, there is not a sibling relationship like the one of Laura and Albert, plenty of love and confidence.

Willie is always shown as a good boy, but it seems that he doesn't feel ANYTHING for Nancy. And there is another strange thing about him: when Nels and Harriet brings Nancy to the house, and Willie sees her, he burst in yelling and shouting against the girl. Doing this in front of an adopted girl who is only arriving to her new home, is a very bad thing. At the moment, he didn't know that Nancy was the monster she proved to be, so, his outburst was nothing but a nasty way of acting.

Sorry, but this time, Willie dissapointed me... :think:

Vanesa.

nancy was a brat, even worse than Nellie had been. If I were Willie, I would have felt the same way. Nancy never showed Willie any kindness whatsoever and so I can understand that he didn't give any back to her.

well...Nancy was adopted when Willie was a teenager...i think that he was too old at that point to ever really see Nancy as his sister...it was like having this strange person coming into your house and suddenly they are your "sister"

Besides, Nancy was a royal brat who never was kind to Willie...i can see why he wasn't upset when she ran away...

Adopting a child is a serious matter, and I don't recall Harriet and Nels sitting down with Willie and seeing just how he felt about it, especially since he was a teenager and he had just gotten rid of his older sister who was an overbearing brat.

I know that Laura and Albert had gotten really close and Charles loved him dearly and Caroline had to tell him to go get him, so that family was all in favor of Albert becoming part of their family. But Nancy was pretty much thrown in Willie's face.

I think Willie had a 6th sense about him and could see mean and ugly, he saw it in Nellie; not as bad, but he knew the signs. Nancy came in with Harriet and Nels and the look on her face told it all. Willie picked up on that and was not prepared to live his life with that all over again.

I also think the whole episode deals with different writers and writers that knew nothing about Willie's past history and when they wrote this episode, they changed history along with Willie..............

MattLabMyLove wrote:

He didn't like her because she was so nasty to him. Remember when she said to him "I hate you, you know?" And he said, I know, lol. He didn't care because he probably hated her too.

Beckie

Yes. But remember that by then, Willie was very much aware about how Nancy really was. The first day she saw her, he wouldn't know how nasty Nancy was.

But I must said that Rhonda is fully right: I never saw Nels and Harriet discussing the matter of adopting a new child with Willie. Willie was a teen by the time they adopted Nancy, and I suppose they must have tought a little more in Willie before to rush to an orphanage to bring a new girl to the house.

On the other hand, I see extremely odd that Willie was not informed about why his parents were going to Sleepy Eyes. They were out at least a day, for Harriet saw Nancy for the first time in the afternoon (I suppose), and when she is trying to make the little girl eat her meal, it was dark outside...and when they returns home along with Nancy the sun was shinning on the top of the sky again...So, Willie must have been informed about where his parents were going to be THAT LONG in Sleepy Eyes...Just wondering. But yes...there must be these writers...


Vanesa.

Well, I bet Willie knew why Harriet and Nels were away, and if I were him I would be wondering why I wasn't enough. Willie always played second fiddle to Nellie--at least with Harriet--and now was his chance to be the center of attention. But instead of being happy with Willie, the Olesons ran off to Sleepy Eye and got themselves a replacement daughter who was even more dispicable than Nellie.

Perhaps the nasty Willie we see when he meets Nancy is holding back anger at his parents and projecting it onto Nancy because she is obviously going to be the favored child with Harriet--not her flesh and blood son.

Cheryl

bethandmanly wrote:

Well, I bet Willie knew why Harriet and Nels were away, and if I were him I would be wondering why I wasn't enough. Willie always played second fiddle to Nellie--at least with Harriet--and now was his chance to be the center of attention. But instead of being happy with Willie, the Olesons ran off to Sleepy Eye and got themselves a replacement daughter who was even more dispicable than Nellie.

Perhaps the nasty Willie we see when he meets Nancy is holding back anger at his parents and projecting it onto Nancy because she is obviously going to be the favored child with Harriet--not her flesh and blood son.

Cheryl

:agree:

Yeah. This is the better explanation I ever read about this issue ...It makes a lot of sense!

Vanesa.