ng control of their lives as Stella did and letting go of their secrets as Steven Pen did. The patriarch of the Toms was a deceitful man who attempted to steal away a married woman. Through his example which was the foundation roots of the Toms', he instilled his immoral values onto his children and their children. His poison of secrets and and self hatred spread like a disease thought his entire family, connecting them together as one dysfunctional unit. All members, except a privedged few such as Anna, Stella, and Alice who broke free of the poison, lived their lives as Sam Toms did who rooted the family. They as he did lied, cheated, manipuled, and kept secrets to try to live a happy life which in actuality their lives were anything but. The strong Toms that broke free of the poison spoke of their problems and took responsibility for them. The rest just followed in their ancestors footsteps and lived unhappy and immoral lives as they did. The Toms family poison connected the whole family, generation after generation together, and helps to prove how important an influential a families roots really are....
