Sophie
How would your
character describe himself/herself?
Toward the start,
Sophie seems resentful and misunderstood. “The dragon, that bitch commonly known as my mother…” Sophie would describe
herself as fat, unwanted, depressed, insecure and misunderstood. Sophie is
extremely resentful toward her mother as seen above.
How would other characters describe this
character? Try to include as many variations as possible and indicate why there
might be differences between characters.
Fran first thought of
Sophie as dead and surprised by how much weight she had put on. All characters
seem to be superficial when they talk about Sophie’s weight gain. Fran states,
“… she has put on so much weight and her face is so sullen. She looks dead.” Geraldine, Sophie’s mother, says
to Sophie, “You are not good with
people. Have no personality to speak of!” This resentment towards her daughter
shows the conflict of personality between Sophie, Geraldine and Fran.
How would you describe the relationships
that this character has with others?
I would describe
Sophie as vulnerable and immature, although Sophie thinks she is just
misunderstood. This is personified when Sophie, who has only known Mihn for one
week, decides to pursue a sexual relationship with him. “I had become a mass of
desire and longing.” (158)
How does this character change
throughout the story? How would you describe him or her?
Sophie develops from a
teenager to a young woman. She furthers her relationships with her family
members and grows more confidence throughout the novel. The first time the new
maturity shines is when she agrees to make pottery for the school fete. “It
pleased me very much that she’d remembered.” For once, Sophie actually
recognises and appreciates what someone has done for her.
What key themes does this character help
the reader to understand?
Sophie’s insecurity is a key
theme to help the reader understand how destructive insecurity is to teenagers.
“I suppose I did feel like a fat disgusting dag, just sitting there at the
computer.”
Fran
How
would your character describe himself/herself?
Fran would describe herself as being an average person.
She would down grade herself and make others look better. Fran does see herself
as always being there for others and can't help it but put others problems
before hers. Fran is the type of
person that feels bad for saying no to things in life and is not happy unless
everyone else is. “Why, why do I buy into
all that stuff?” (P.6), this is moment where Fran is asking herself why can
she never say no to helping people. “How
come she still has all of that power over me?” (p.6), this is an example of
where Fran shows that although her sister has blocked her out of her life for
twenty years she can still control her and has power over her. This is more a
guilt factor of what Fran did in the past and her feeling that she still needs
to make it up to Geraldine. Lastly, Fran never loses touch with reality and has
always believed that everything will turn out ok in the end.
How would
other characters describe this character? Try to include as many variations as
possible and indicate why there might be differences between characters.
Other characters would describe Fran as being very caring,
cooperative and very good at helping others. Fran is also very creative and
artistic and is the “normal/average” daughter in their family. Fran would be
described as very down to earth and on par with reality. She knows that life
has its struggles and doesn’t take any
thing for granted. “ I have to admit, to
a tiny feeling of intense pleasure in all of this. Geraldine is having a
struggle with her daughter… Wow Mrs perfect has come down to deal with the real
world for once.” (p.93) This quote suggests that Fran does have a little
bit of negative feelings towards other people and is not “perfect”. This also
suggests that others think that she enjoys looking after others where all she
really wants is her own space. “I see
that she both looks like my mum, but doesn’t. Shes slim, but bigger than mum
and fair skinned, but her hair has streaks of gray in it.” (P.71) This is
how Sophie describes Fran when she first arrives in Ballingo.
How would you
describe the relationships that this character has with others?
This character has a strong relationship with Amy and
Sophie but is distant and awkward with her sister Geraldine. She only has a
relationship with the ones that are true friends and have always been there for
her. Fran only has a few close friends that she can trust, but that’s what she
prefers. “Geraldine! Who hadn’t spoken
willingly to her in twenty years.” (p.7) This quote tells the reader that
Fran does not have a close relationship with her sister. Fran expresses that
she trusts her brother as she states “I
smiled ruefully, thinking that Jimmy was about the only person in the world who
I would take that king of jibe from.” (P109-110). Amy also expresses that
her relationship with Amy is very strong as she states “I had hardly even had to explain things to her, my soul mate since we
were 12.” (P96)
How does this
character change throughout the story? How would you describe him or her?
Fran’s relationship with Geraldine and Sophie are the
major things that change throughout the novel. Fran and Geraldine were close
sisters at the start of the novel, until Geraldine breaks up with Paul, and
Paul kisses Fran. This is evident when Fran asks Paul “You told Geraldine that…her voiced dies away to a whisper. Told her
you… loved me?” (p.59) This shows that Fran does care about both her sister
and Paul, and is the start of the distance between Geraldine and Fran. At the
beginning of the novel Fran hated the idea of having a teenager around her
house and this soon changed as she got to know Sophie and built up a strong
relationship with her. She found that her and Sophie had many similarities and
that they could relate to each other in many situations. This similarity is
expressed when Sophie and Fran are talking and she says “But I was remembering dad telling me the story when I was only 17 and it somehow seemed sad to be
telling another 17 year old from the next generation.” (P101)
What key themes does this character help the reader to understand?
Fran helps the reader understand that relationships
between people can change, progress and go down hill, but at the end of the day
family will always be there for you. This is evident when Geraldine writes Fran
a letter saying “At the time I envied
you, your do-gooding instincts but lately I began to think that, seeing you did
it so well with dad, then you might be able to help Sophie.” (P114) She
also gives the reader an understanding of the different types of relationships
that humans can have and how they are dealt with.
