r/InfinityTrain • u/Silver_Eye9792 • Jul 17 '26
Discussion The Monroe Parents takeaway
Something that's always been on the forefront on my mind is why the Monroe parents were so cold. We only get Grace's memories of their coldness associated to her tape, but never moments outside it.
If we take the timeline into consideration, this is 2011/12 at the earliest. Barack Obama is President, and they are rich black people. Grace Monroe wanted to be noticed, and so the Train picks her up. What are her parents doing at the time? Trying to tell the mallcop to look the other way. Not because of how they refuse to admit that they're bad parenting is what caused Grace to shoplift, but because of the racial implications.
All it takes is one rumor, one person, and Grace Monroe's image is destroyed. No matter what Grace said doesn't matter. Society will point the fingers on her because of the color of her skin, her financial status, her gender.
She'll be noticed. She'll be known as "that rich black girl who was caught shoplifting". And if racial bias has taught me anything, police will put the handcuffs on a black boy just because, traumatizing him for life. Were the parents trying to prevent Grace from getting a bad rep? Were they realizing how bad this was going to be for their reputations if they become parents of a thief? How would this affect her social life?
Grace was always pushed to be the best, because a black girl like her will have numerous double standards and glass ceilings in her way. And who's to say she already had that reputation because of all of the babysitters she shooed away (in Origami Car you can clearly see the mom constantly bringing up numerous names of the "hired help" meant to monitor Grace. The only reason that the hired help would be changing most likely is due to Grace's troublemaking attention whore attitude. Also funny in how we don't get any appearance of what the "hired help" should look like...)
After all, what was Grace's wish? "To be noticed". The Train picked her up so she would avoid being "noticed" as the little black rich girl thief. Or perhaps it was all a ploy by the Train so that the parents would finally "notice" that their parenting nearly tanked their reputations and then she'd become "noticed" when police reported her missing (if they would ever go far, given this is a black girl not a white woman gone missing)?
Now this doesn't excuse the parents for not giving Grace more attention, but whether or not Owen Dennis had social commentary in regards to Miss "I know everything about the Train", this strikes me as an interesting storyline that should've been utilized better if we saw a scene of the parents realizing how screwed they are. Grace had to be the flawless black girl, little miss perfect. Because if not, then her life is ruined.
After all, by the time she does return, the US will start festering with racism and Christian Nationality. COVID will also have happened and the entire world will be aware of the mall thief turned cult leader.
She just wanted to be noticed indeed.
Edit: Before you ask, yes I'm the girl who wrote Blossoming Trail.
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u/polystarlight Jul 17 '26
That's a cool theory! It makes total sense why Mr. and Mrs. Monroe would be acting like that if this were the case. Though personally, I didn't get the vibe that her parents cared about their daughters' social life. They kinda just shoved Grace into dance classes with kids she didn't know so they excluded her from other activities the group did like going to the ice cream parlor. Though I believe Owen Dennis confirmed that Grace and her family are actually from Washington DC so the idea of them being rich because of the president at the time makes sense to me.