The sad and tormented life of Mary

Taken by Agnieszka Holland in 1993 during the film.

The first chapter focuses on introducing each character by describing their personality, the author illustrates that Mary Lennox, the main character, is ugly, with skin made yellow because she gets sick quite easily. She is arrogant and she does not care about anything since that is what she receives, no affection. The setting of the novel, at the moment, is India where is living with her parents, who do not have time for her. Her mother called Mrs. Lennox, who admitted that she has never wanted a child at all, left Mary with some Indian servants and she even gave them instructions to keep her out of her sight. Mrs. Lennox is vain because she is beautiful and an elegant woman. The only thing that she does is going to parties and fashion events. Apart from that, Mrs. Lennox does not even tell anyone she has a little girl and this may sound cruel but I believe this is because she also thinks that Mary is ugly and that is why she does not want to present her to the people around her.

Secondly, another event absolutely change the story and it made it worst. A cholera epidemic breaks out in the Indian village where the Lennoxes are living. The family did not escape since Mrs. Lennox had to attend a dinner party and she might have thought that nothing was going to happen to her since she assumes she is in another level because of her social status. One day when cholera was affecting most parts of the village, numerous people were dying and others fleeing, but The Lennoxes were still in the village and Mary was locked in her room where she does nothing but cry and sleep. She even drinks wine and as a result of that she sleeps for many hours. Once, she fell into a deep sleep and when she woke up she realized she has been abandoned and that her parents have died. She has been left behind until a group of British soldiers found her there and took her with them.

The first chapter definitely met my expectations; I found everything well-described and clear. The first theme of the story I assume is the lack of love. Children behave according to their atmosphere what they perceive. In the novel, no one loves Mary and no one either pays attention to her. Therefore, Mary does not have good manners; her behavior has been affected by her surroundings. It can be inferred that she is not a naughty child, but because of the conditions in which she is growing up she tend to be selfish and hateful. On the other side, as I am reading I can deduce that Mrs.Lennox  is a cold-hearted person since she does not show any kind of affection towards her own daughter. Apparently, she did not even want a baby as it has been stated previously. Thus, Mary suffers every day the consequences of her parents' mistake and she needs to deal with the fact that she is an unwanted child.

Created by FayTaylor13 in http://es.fanpop.com/clubs/kate-maberly/images

This is how I imagine Mrs. Lennox looks like.
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