The
Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
Told in the form of a diary,
Sue Townsend’s young adult novel The
Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ (1982) details the existence
and struggles of the titular British boy who, fancying himself an intellectual,
often misunderstands the events surrounding him.
At school, Adrian meets
Pandora and decides he might fall in love with her. He tries to discuss his
feelings for her with his parents, but they are too busy fighting with each
other, in part over the attention that Mr. Lucas is paying to his mother, Pauline.
Mr. Lucas comes by frequently to do chores and other work. Pauline then takes a
job in Mr. Lucas’s office and begins dressing differently and ignoring the
housework. Pauline explains that sometimes marriage is a prison for women, but
Adrian doesn’t understand this as his mother and other wives are free to come
and go as they please. He sees Mr. Lucas reading a pornographic magazine and
wonders if he should tell his mother about it. Adrian then begins reading the
same magazine, reasoning that it’s okay for intellectuals. He becomes very
concerned about his acne, and when his mother refuses to do anything about it,
he calls his grandmother, who comes and takes him to the doctor.
Pandora and Adrian begin dating officially.
Adrian’s mother goes to live with Mr. Lucas. Adrian enjoys playing pranks for
April Fools’ Day but does not enjoy having pranks played on him. He turns
fourteen, and for his birthday, his mother and Mr. Lucas give him money. Adrian
has to help his father around the house with everything and even has to use
some of his birthday money to buy groceries. He is unhappy when George meets
Doreen and begins seeing her, also bringing her son, Maxwell, into Adrian’s
life.
The financial situation worsens, and soon the
power is cut off. Adrian is unhappy and can only relax at his grandmother’s
house. Pauline announces she is coming home, and George immediately breaks off
his affair with Doreen, believing Pauline to be coming home for good. Adrian
knows that this is just a visit, however. George is officially laid off, and
Doreen begins spending more time there to take care of him; Adrian finds
himself warming up to her. He wears red socks to school to be rebellious and is
lectured. He is diagnosed with tonsillitis and must have a tonsillectomy.
The thirteen years old boy Adrian Mole decided to write a
journal and when he saw a TV show from the writer Malcolm Muggeridge he decided
to send his poems to him. Adrian thought of himself as an intellectual because
he understood every word on the show.
Soon after sending the poems he got a reply. His poems were
declined, but John Tydeman told him to keep on trying because he is going to
get many more negative answers before he gets something published.
Adrian was in puberty and had a slight problem with pimples and
he was a bit chubby. His parents were always fighting. His family was thrilled
when he got a response for his poems. He wrote that down in his journal besides
the fact that he would sometimes read his poems in school hoping that one of
the teachers will ask him what is he reading and give him a feedback on his
poems. Unfortunately that never happened.
Adrian joined a society and started taking care of Bert Baxter,
an old 89 years old man. He used to work with horses, and he was a communist.
Because of his work, Adrian was allowed to miss one class on Monday, and that
was Math.
A new student came into Adrian's class, and he fell in love with
her. Her name was Pandora Brithwaite. She came from a wealthy family and lived
in a beautiful street. Her parents were intellectuals and gave her a horse.
Despite everything she rather entertained herself with Adrian's friend Nigel.
Soon Adrian's mom got a job, and at the same time, she started
having an affair with their neighbor Lucas. His parents found a lawyer and
decided to get a divorce. Adrian never mentioned that they got divorced, but we
can believe they did since his mother moved to Sheffield with Lucas.
Adrian got a job as a paper delivery boy to earn his allowance.
Half of everything he earned went to a bully named Barry Kent who was his
classmate. His father tried everything to protect him, but nothing worked.
Adrian got beat up by Barry. In the end, his grandmother interferes, and she
was successful at solving the problem. Barry had to give all of the money back.
His father found another woman named Doreen Slater. They were
co-workers. A few days later he got fired from his job, and the fear for
survival crawled into their house.
Adrian became aware of the fact that his father wasn’t able to
take care of him anymore, so he took up all of the work. He was cleaning,
cooking, taking care of his dog. He expressed a strong will to become a
veterinarian one day, but he also wanted to be a writer.
To be able to help Adriansfather, Doreen moved in with her son.
After a few days, Adrian got rebellious and decided to wear red socks to
school. That was forbidden because the students could only wear red socks. The
principle sent him home because of that, and Pandora started looking at him
with great admiration. She was amazed at his attitude, and they ended up in a
relationship.
Pandora spent the summer with her parents in Tunis. She turned
off her phone because Adrian spent a lot of money calling her.
Bert Baxter got very ill and ended up in a hospital. Since he
was too weak to take care of himself, he moved in with Adrian. Then he moved to
Pandoras house and then to family Singh. Finally, he went to a nursing home.
Adrian visited his mother in Sheffield and went to Scotland with
her and Lucas. He was very bore3d and that annoyed Lucas. Soon he met an
American Hamish who was a bit crazy and he was his age.
A little after that Adrian had to go to the hospital to get his
tonsils out. His father told him that he was on the waiting list since he was
five. He was at the hospital for a week.
Pandora suggested to Adrian that they could start up a magazine.
Adrian used it to write an article named "The truth about Barry
Kent". The magazine never became famous because Barry Kent bought the only
copy of it.
By the end of the year, his mother broke up with Lucas and came
home. His father was thrilled. Adrian described it as a déjà-vu.
The Christmas show was near, and Pandora was in it with Adrian.
The theme was the birth of Christ, and the two of them were the parents of baby
Jesus. At the end of the year, Adrian wrote down 10 New Year decisions into his
diary.
Bert got married to Queenie and Adrian sent his poems regularly
to BBC.
Soon there was a meeting of a club where Pandora was with
Barbara Boyer. She was very attractive women whose thoughts about disarming
NATO were not in line with Pandora's. Adrian couldn’t resist Barbara, and they
got into a relationship. She didn’t want to hurt Pandora, so she ended it.
Adrian confessed to Nigel that he was with Barbara and he spread
it all around school. Pandora heard the news, so she decided to ignore the fact
that Adrian's birthday was coming.
A day later UK got into a war with Argentina. Adrian leaned his
nose gently on a model airplane he was building to smell the glue. He wasn’t
thinking clearly and his nose got glued to the plane. He ended up in to
hospital and the doctor was convinced that Adrian was sniffing glue.
After that, he called Pandora, and she forgave him for cheating
on her. He was hoping that she will arrive at the hospital any time now and as
he was waiting, he realized that the only thing that could save him from going
insane was love.
Whilehe was writing the journal he wasn’t only writing about his
life and family. We can also lear a lot about the situation in England and the
life of the migrants. He was describing the relation between the races and
important events such as the weeding of Charles and Diana.
Characters: Adrian, Pandora, Bert Bexter
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