The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole English Literature Essay

Adrian Mole is a worrier and dogged by ill health. He believes he is an intellectual and because of that he writes poems and reads a lot of books. In fact he isn’t that smart at all, but just an ordinary boy. He also looks like one. He has, through his eyes, enormous spots (the amount of that often returns in the book). He thinks, till the part when he finds out that two women are in love with him, he’s very ugly. He interferes himself with everything and comes up for what he thinks that’s right. Though he is also afraid of a school bully named Barry Kent.

Other important characters:

Mrs. Pauline Mole is the mother of Adrian, but not a very good one. She’s member of a club that comes up for the rights of the women and because of that she won’t do the household only by herself anymore. After the disapproval from her husband she leaves him for the neighbour. He treats her like a sexobject, what is also against the rights of the woman, so she leaves him as well.

Mr. Mole is the father of Adrian. It seems that he doesn’t care a lot about his son. If the troubles are too much to him, he drinks them away (like when his wife leaves him, he feels lost and starts drinking). Most of the time he ‘s unemployed. He doesn’t care about his looks, and that you can see.

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‘If my father took more care of his appearance, none of this would have happened. It stands to reason that any woman would prefer a man to wear a suit and a lot of gold jewellery to one like my father who hardly ever shaves and wears old clothes and no jewellery.’

Mr. Lucas is the neighbour of the family Mole. He has just divorced and when Pauline feels sorry for him he becomes her (secret) lover. His nickname by Pauline is Bimbo but Adrian calls him ‘creep Lucas’. He looks very fine as you can also read in the quote by Mr. Mole (there he’s the man with the suit etc.).

Bert Baxter is the (89 year) old man Adrian takes care of, for the Good Samaritans group. Bert makes a bad first impression upon Adrian. ‘But worst of all, Bert Baxter is not a nice old age pensioner! He drinks and smokes and has an Alsatian dog called Sabre. Sabre was locked in the kitchen while I was cutting the massive hedge, but he didn’t stop growling once.’ Later in the book they become friends. When Bert, with a lot of protest, must go to the hospital for his health he meets Queenie. They fell in love and marry.

Pandora is the new girl in class whom Adrian is secret in love with. When she’s going out with Nigel, Adrian is in total shock, very sad and desperate. Later when the couple breaks, Adrian is full of joy and, after the next relationship of her and Craig Thomas, he and Pandora fall in love.

‘There is a new girl in our class. She sits next to me in Geography. She is all right. Her name is Pandora, but she likes being called ‘Box’. Don’t ask me why. I might fall in love with her. It’s time I fell in love, after all I am 13 ¾ years old.

Pandora has got hair the colour of treacle, and it’s long like girls’ hair should be. She has quite a good figure. I saw her playing netball and her ches was wobbling. I felt a bit funny I think this is it!

Nigel is the best and only friend of Adrian. Adrian is most of the time jealous of the things Nigel’s got. Like Nigel’s new yellow bike, Pandora and the fact he hasn’t got a single spot.

Summary

The book is a part of the diary of Adrian Mole. It tells about 1½ year of his life.

In this part:

His parents are in a break-up, his mother leaves his father for the neighbour, but get’s back to his father after a while.

He fells in love with Pandora but his love isn’t answered for a long time.

He is bullied by Barry Kent.

Adrian becomes a poet (receives two letters from the BBC therefore) and an intellectual.

Gets a new (very old) friend by his Good Samaritan work and meets also new friends by his father’s new work.

Gets in contact with a prisoner, named Grace Pool, because she has made a toothbrush holder for Adrian.

And Adrian is being terrorised by big spots

You can say, a very busy year for a boy who worries all the time.

Biography

Sue Townsend is born 2 april 1946 in Leicester.

At the age of 15 she already worked as an attendant of a garage. She was interested in literature and read much. After her divorce she began to write, in the beginning for theatre. The First Diary of Adrian Mole was her break-through in 1985. This book was immediately a world wide success, what led to a couple of sequels. Also she wrote a few (humoristic) novels.

Sue is still active, but became blind due diabetes.

www.AdrianMole.com www.wikipedia.nl

Personal Response

1. I’ve really enjoyed reading the book, because Adrian has a very hilarious look at life. He worries just too much about his problems, and that’s realistic for a teenager (who also wants to be an intellectual). His two New Year’s resolutions give a good example of how he wants to live, those resolutions are idiotic but not unthinkable. I think that makes the book ‘both touching and screamingly funny’ , his life and opinion of life is idiotic but not unthinkable.

2. I liked the book very much because it’s quite comparable to about any teenager’s life. Of course his character and troubles are different but it has aspects you recognize.

3. At one point Barry Kent tries to rob Adrian twenty-five pence every day, and Adrian kind of (he tries to be in the gang of the biggest third-years) lets that happen. ‘Barry Kent said he would do me over unless I gave him twenty-five pence every day. I told him that he was wasting his time demanding money with menaces from me. I never have any spare money. My mother puts my pocket money straight into my building-society account and gives me fifteen pence a day for a Mars bar. Barry Kent said I would have to give him my dinner money! I told him that my father pays it by cheque since it went up to sixty pence a day, but Barry Kent hit me in the goolies and walked off saying ‘There’s more where that came from.”

I just can’t imagine you can let that happen or that there wouldn’t be anyone who immediately stands up for you (later in the book his grandmother does). I just wouldn’t give the money: that makes Barry only more powerful. If he would hit me I would try to get help as soon as possible or else hit back. Maybe it wouldn’t be as hard as Barry does, but I wouldn’t allow him to get his money by hitting people.

Nevertheless, this made me empathize in being a victim of bullies, and I think that’s a good lesson, to know what it’s like for his side in such situations.