No, I think that he is just struggling to grasp at the few things he can control and the ruin left behind when his wife died. I don't believe that he is selfish because he ignores his children and wants to live in the glory days of his music career. How do they move on? What's the point in living when the one person who made it all better is no longer there? The children's father, Shorty, deals a lot with these sort of issues over the course of the book. It's something that I think a lot of people struggle with once a loved one passes away. They learn that there are consequences for their choices and these consequences just might not be the ones they want.I always figured that when I found that one person I wanted to spend my life with, it would be even harder when the situation arose that I would lose them. They realize that not everything is good out there. It seems like during the story, the two of them lose their innocence towards the outside world. I think along the way the boys lose sight of all the things she has given up for them which makes them come off as selfish but it's hard not to acknowledge that children are like that.

They both struggle with the idea of Retta being the boss of them and that she basically has become the mother of the two of them. Johnny and Roy are typically boys, growing up in a world where they want to have adventure but on their own terms.

She faces the greatest challenges and the greatest losses as she fights to be her own person and controlling her brothers like only a parent can. Rarely does she appear selfish in the story, mostly because she devotes so much of her time and effort to her brothers that I think she forgets about herself along the way. It's hard for her to watch other people live their lives, make friends, have good memories, and act like they don't have a care in the world. Ever since her mother passed away, she had to step into the role of mother and she struggles with the desire to be a normal kid too. But this freedom they've discovered by their father's lack of parental oversight just might be the demise of their very family.Retta is who I consider to be the voice of reason in this story. It is something they've never experienced before and it seems like this might be the one taste of a happy life - a free life - they'll ever get. One night Retta takes the boys to swim in a neighbor's pool. These children struggle to experience life and friendship because they have no one at home to support them or push them to do better than they are. The Night Swimmers by Betsy Byars tells the story of three children who have essentially lost both their parents the night their mother died.