Clara’s Day Essay Example

a fifteen year old girl, who lives with her mother and her boyfriend. Her parents are separated. She is a very shy person she doesn’t have any real friends. Due to her lack of friends she is very lonely and craves for attention. She doesn’t like to show her body to anyone. She is afraid of growing up, and afraid of her own sexuality. Her mother don’t give Clara a lot of attention, she is interested in Stan. Maybe that is the reason that Clara take’s of her clothes in the school assembly hall. After school Clara often hangs out at the bus station with some of the girls who had boyfriends at St Benet’s, which was another school in London.

In the text the Head is represented as friendly lady, maybe the mother Clara never had, and never gets, despite her attempt. She is a family person and she cares for her pupils. When talking with Clara she tries to open her up by asking her questions and trying to find out if she has problems with her friends, at home or with the exams. She cares for Clara and wants to find out what the reason for her behavior is.

Her mother is very selfish and self-centered. She isn't easy to talk with, and doesn't seem particularly interested in Clara's life. “Any news”, is the phrase she uses every day when Clara comes home from school. She doesn't show any interest in Clara’s day at all and try to dig deeper into how her day has been and how she feels. One day her mother throws the magazine: “Orgasm – Fact or Fantasy” on the

table in front of Clara, and that also shows that she isn't aware of Clara's problems with the sexual things. She should instead try to sit down with Clara and talk about it, instead she shoves the sexual thing in her face. A normal mother with a daughter of that age should to talk to her about it and help her become more comfortable with the subject.

Stan appears to be a bit more interested in Clara’s life. He offers Clara different kinds of stuff and talks a bit more to Clara then her mother does. The words: “How's tricks, then?” shows his interest in Clara's feelings. But Clara's reactions when she meets Stan say that she doesn't care about him that much. The way she pulled her dressing-gown more closely round her body, when Stan came, seems like she doesn't want him to come near her. She also describes his man smell as very powerful, and that could seem like something she doesn't like, because the word: smell usually is used to describe something negative.

Characterization of Clara’s relationship with her mother and Stan

Clara is very well aware of the fact that she will draw attention and that the Head will send a letter to her mother. That is why she does it. Clara and her mother don’t have a good relationship. Her mother is very selfish and self-centered. She doesn’t show any interest in Clara and her life, all of her energy is being used on Stan and their relationship. Clara and her mother barely talk to each other. Maybe that is the reasons why Clara doesn’t confide in her.

A final answer to why Clara

undressed in the assembly hall and why she cried after her mother and Stan have left?

A shortage of attention from her mother’s side result in a sad and isolated daughter, who makes a desperate attempt to get her mother’s attention. Also the lack of someone to look up to is leaving her with many questions about herself. That again results in some identity issues. Clara feels like no one understands her. At the end of the story she just sits and cries, because she realizes that she failed. When the mother reads the letter, she doesn’t show a bit of attention and interest in Clara, but talks to Stan and humiliates her in front of him.