The main character Alice is a young female with parents and an older brother. Her vision of the world at the beginning of the book is very naïve. She believes in the good in every body and isn't aware that they don't like her and think she is pushy and a flirt. When she attends a dance, with her brother who hangs around with the wrong sort of people, she comes to a realization that the people she thought were her friends really weren't. Nobody asked her to dance and no one really talked to her. All the boys who used to come around her house stopped coming and no longer associate with her. Her mother, who I believe is a little over dramatic, thinks it's all her father's fault because he is settling in his job and not trying to make more of himself. Many times in the book Alice's parents have an argument over this subject. Alice's mother believes that the father could make a great living running a glue factory, but thinks he is lazy because he refused to do it and remains with his employer, Mr. Lamb. Alice's mother believes that Alice would have more friends if they had more money.
Alice's father is very sickly and at the beginning of the book is off work because of being ill. As he finally gets better Alice begins having regular visits by a great young man who is wealthy and is a relative to a wealthy family in town. Alice makes up a lot of stories so that he will think more highly of her and her family. The father decides he needs to help Alice and begins to open the glue factory. There are some ethical questions regarding the recipe for the glue that has been stopping him all these years and it has something to do with his boss, Mr. Lamb. The poor father almost drives himself mad wondering what Mr. Lamb thinks of him. Mr. Lamb in the end turns out to be a great man and not so much the typical rich person that the Adams family believes him to be, although the mother still isn't satisfied with her husband and the decisions he had to make. The young man who is visiting Alice on the other hand, turns out to be not so great, and does listen to what other people say of Alice.
The book made me really think about how much emphasis I put on what other people think of me. In the end does it really matter? Throughout this book that is the Adams family's concern: they are embarrassed of their small rickety house and that they don't have paid help and that Alice's dress is the wrong material. What it boils down to in the end is what you make of yourself and how you treat other people. Alice realizes that and makes a change in her life for the better.
The beginning of this book was rather slow and uninteresting to me, but as it went on and I got to know the characters better and begin to have interest in their lives the book improved a lot.
Hm...it sounds like an interesting book, but you only gave it two balls of yarn...I guess I won't read it just yet.
ReplyDelete