The secret diary of Adrian Mole door Sue Townsend

In December things become a bit better for Adrian. His mother moves back because creep Lucas is treating her like a sex object. His father is very happy because of this, as is Adrian.  But when Pauline starts cleaning up the house she finds the phone bill and Adrian is in big trouble. But, even though this huge bill, Adrian still gets a racing bike for his birthday from his parents. Adrian also invites Bert and Queenie for Christmas but sadly the Sugdens, who, according to Adrian, are a boring family from Norfolk, also come during Christmas. During January Adrian receives an invitation for the wedding of Bert and Queenie. They are going to live in a bungalow. At the start of February George, who is still unemployed, decides to start his own company which makes spice racks. He sells one spice rack to the Singhs, but the rack falls apart and he stops selling spice racks. Adrian, Pandora, Nigel and Claire Neilson also form a radical group who discuss things like war and peace. Adrian is also very annoyed because Pandora just keeps getting better grades than he does. In March both Adrian’s parents quit smoking but after only five days they give up and start smoking again. George gets a job as a Canal Bank Renovation Supervisor (whatever that is). A girl from school called Elizabeth has also fallen in love with Adrian but he stays loyal to Pandora for now. This because another girl called Barbara joins the Pink Brigade. She is smarter than Pandora and Adrian starts to like her. He gets a three-day affair with her after which she breaks up. The next day Adrian became fifteen and the day thereafter the Falkland War started. Adrian also rang Pandora who is coming over because Adrian wants her back.

Main characters

Adrian Mole: He is the most important character in the book and the son of Pauline and George Mole. Adrian is an extreme worrier, especially things like spots and the relationship between his parents. He thinks he is a very smart ‘intellectual’ but he isn’t by far as intelligent as he thinks he is. He first wants to become a vet but mainly because of his grades which are too low he changes this into a poet, even though his poems are very, very average at best. Adrian is also a bit egocentric and thinks that everything in the whole world is about him. He falls in love with Pandora almost immediately and, after a while, she also falls in love with him. His best (and only) friend is Nigel even though Bert Baxter also becomes kind of a friend. A positive characteristic of him is that he wants to push himself and become an intellectual. But a negative one of him has also to do with this: he thinks of himself as extremely smart and close to perfect. But he isn’t and should do some self-reflection because he will never be an extremely smart intellectual. I have chosen these characteristics because they are going to determine Adrian’s life. It is good to push yourself to your limit but you shouldn’t push yourself past your limits. If Adrian can’t see his weak points then he will never make anything of his life.

Pandora: She is new to Adrian’s school and is pretty smart. She is also very radical and protests a lot in the book, like the red sock protest. At first she is dating Nigel, then some other boys, but in the end she falls in love with Adrian. Adrian does everything for her even though she does create some scandals at school what Adrian doesn’t like. A positive characteristic about her is that she stays loyal to Adrian, even though he betrayed her with Barbara. This is an important positive characteristic because, if you are having a relationship, people will do stupid things and a relationship needs to be strong enough to withstand those things. A negative feature about her is that she does change her ideals pretty quickly. For example, she swore to be a pacifist at the last meeting of The Pink Brigade but a short while thereafter she got into a fight with another girl who was also in love with Adrian. I think that this is an important negative characteristic because someone has to stick to their ideals or just don’t have them. They don’t have any significance if you only refer to them when it suits you.

Bert Baxter: Bert is a dirty, 89–year-old man who lives in a sickeningly dirty house. Adrian joins The Good Samaritans, an organization which takes care of the elderly, and he is assigned to take care of Bert. At first Bert treats him like a slave but after a while they become friends. But when Bert needs to go to a hospital they say he has to move into an elderly home. He hates it here but does meet Queenie and marries her. He is a grumpy, but often nice old man who really likes horses and frequently goes to visit Blossom, Pandora’s horse which is sold later on in the book.

Mrs. Pauline Mole: She is Adrian’s mother, but not a really good one. She is a member of an organization which stands up for the rights of women. Because of this she divides the domestic work between herself, George and Adrian. But George goes protests at this and this is one of the reasons why she leaves him and Adrian and starts a new life with Mr. Lucas. But after a while she comes back because he treats her like a sex object, which is contrary to the position of women.

Mr. George Mole: He is Adrian’s father, and just like the mother, not a really good one. When he finds out about the affair between Pauline and Mr. Lucas he fights him in his front yard. After this Pauline moves away. Throughout most of the book, he is unemployed and because of this starts drinking a lot and takes even less care of Adrian or the house. When Pauline moves away he gets a new girlfriend called Doreen to show his wife that there are women that do want him. Eventually Pauline comes back and he finds a job, which causes him to lower his alcohol consumption.

Mr. Lucas: In the beginning he is Adrian’s neighbour, but when his wife moves away and takes almost everything that was in the house with her, he lives in their house for a while. When his affair with Pauline becomes public, he moves, together with her, to Sheffield. He is called Bimbo by Pauline and ‘creep Lucas’ by Adrian.

Theme
The main theme of this book is the problems of a teenage boy. It is this because almost the complete book is about the problem Adrian faces, from the spots on his face and the fighting between his parents to his relationship with Pandora. And  the underlying theme is love, the love between Pandora and Nigel, and later on Pandora and Adrian. But love is also the love between Adrian’s parents and later on the love between creep Lucas and Pauline.

Time and place
The story is set from January 1st 1981 till April 3rd 1982. It is really easy to determine this, because it is a diary and it runs from January 1st till April 3rd the next year. But there isn’t one page where they say which year it is, even though this also isn’t a problem, because there are two huge events in the book: the start of the Falkland War and the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diane. The war started in 1982 and the marriage was in 1981, so these are the two years in which the story takes place.

Most of the events happen in England, in a small town near Sheffield. This is where Adrian, Pandora, Bert and almost all the characters live. Adrian and Bert both live in a rather neat district. Adrian also goes to the apartment of his mother and Mr. Lucas in Sheffield and to Scotland with them. One of the places they visit here are Glasgow. Important locations in the story are Bert’s and Adrian’s house and Adrian’s school.

Underlying message
As far as I know this book has none. It isn’t some kind of war drama like The Kite Runner, or a deeply symbolical book like Animal Farm. This book has only one goal, and that isn’t teaching the reader some important lesson. No, the only thing the book tries is to entertain the reader and make him laugh as much as possible (in which the book quite succeeds). If there is an underlying message though, it is probably something about that you should look critically at yourself and don’t push yourself over your limit like Adrian does. He thinks he is an intellectual, he wants to be an intellectual but he isn’t! So he should take a good look at himself, at what he can do and what he can’t and build his life around that instead of some ideal he will never accomplish.

Most important event
In my opinion the most important event in the whole book is the point when Adrian puts on red socks when he goes to school. I have chosen this event because this tiny stupidity leads to his relationship with Pandora and will be of major influence on his future life. Who knows what would have happened if Adrian didn’t have his tower of strength to support him during his life? What we do know is that it changed his life significantly.

The ending
In my opinion the ending is good. It is difficult to end a diary, unlike a war or crime novel. When the crime is solved or the war is over, the book ends. But because a diary is about the everyday life of somebody, there isn’t really a way to end it, except death of course. But that wouldn’t really suit this book. So the writer decided to end the multiple smaller storylines that are in this book one by one and inthat way end the book. Bert Baxter marries and goes to live in a bungalow, Pauline dumps creep Lucas and comes back and Adrian cheats on Pandora but wants to fix their relationship. This way, the book is closed for the biggest part but there is still room for a sequel were we find out what is going to happen to Adrian and Pandora. It was also pretty smart to end the book when an important historical event happened, the start of the Falkland War. Sue Townsend also did make a sequel: ‘The growing pains of Adrian Mole’ in which she will probably create some other side stories, just like she did here with Bert. Because the side stories are ended step by step instead of abruptly and the ending doesn’t feel forced, I think it is a good ending of the book.

My opinion
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole was the first book that I read in my whole life that wanted to make the reader laugh. And it succeeded quite well in doing so. It didn’t make an impression on me, it didn’t teach me anything and it had about no historical value, but all that doesn’t matter because it’s a very funny book. Adrian takes himself very seriously and writes about all his ‘problems’ like they are about world peace or something big like that. And that seriousness makes it so funny when you read that he calls the doctor and even let him come over to his house just because of one tiny spot. It read away nicely because it’s a diary and every day is a tiny, funny story. You read page after page and before I knew it I was halfway through the book. There aren’t many descriptions of characters, surroundings or anything like that, and in most books this puts me off a bit. But not here because these things would only slow the book down. I also liked the way Adrian writes about Mr. Lucas, like his dream about him on page 88: ‘3 a.m. Just had a dream about stabbing Lucas with the toothpick on my penknife. Best dream I’ve had for ages.’ Or on page 151: ‘Lucas fell in the burn (Scottish for ‘little river’) but unfortunately it was too shallow to drown in.’ However, it did happen sometimes that you read about 10-20 lines where almost nothing funny happens and you might do a little grinning but that’s it. Another very, very small feature that I didn’t like were the shopping lists. They felt to me like they were just there to fill the space or something like that. But those things don’t matter very much because I did enjoy this book and it gave me a good laugh. That’s why I give it an 8,2.

Choice assignment 5

My opinion
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole was the first book that I read in my whole life that wanted to make the reader laugh. And it succeeded quite well in doing so. It didn’t make an impression on me, it didn’t teach me anything and it had about no historical value, but all that doesn’t matter because it’s a very funny book. Adrian takes himself very seriously and writes about all his ‘problems’ like they are about world peace or something big like that. And that seriousness makes it so funny when you read that he calls the doctor and even let him come over to his house just because of one tiny spot. It read away nicely because it’s a diary and every day is a tiny, funny story. You read page after page and before I knew it I was halfway through the book. There aren’t many descriptions of characters, surroundings or anything like that, and in most books this puts me off a bit. But not here because these things would only slow the book down. I also liked the way Adrian writes about Mr. Lucas, like his dream about him on page 88: ‘3 a.m. Just had a dream about stabbing Lucas with the toothpick on my penknife. Best dream I’ve had for ages.’ Or on page 151: ‘Lucas fell in the burn (Scottish for ‘little river’) but unfortunately it was too shallow to drown in.’ However, it did happen sometimes that you read about 10-20 lines where almost nothing funny happens and you might do a little grinning but that’s it. Another very, very small feature that I didn’t like were the shopping lists. They felt to me like they were just there to fill the space or something like that. But those things don’t matter very much because I did enjoy this book and it gave me a good laugh. That’s why I give it an 8,2.

Choice assignment 5

 Dear Mr. Adrian Mole,

My name is Sir Allen McFrog from the British order of the intellectuals and I have to admit that you are succeeding very well in damaging our name. Even the very thought that you are an intellectual sickens me. Us intellectuals are sophisticated, civilized, smart and mannered people and you do not even possess one of these traits. First of all, us intellectuals do NOT read the Big and Bouncy. We don’t read magazines that please the eye but those that please the mind. We read Discovery magazine, National Geographic, the Quest and that kind of magazine. Your choice of books is okay, us intellectuals do read George Orwell but that is the kind of stuff we read when we are about 8 years old.

When you are fourteen years old you should read, if you ever wish to become close to an intellectual, Dante, Goethe, Shakespeare or Homer, all in their original language.

Secondly, us intellectuals only get 18 out of 20 points and higher, not 15 out of twenty for Geography and CERTAINLY NOT five out of twenty for spelling. You say you want to become a poet, but I would be surprised if you even know how to write it! Thirdly, us intellectuals do not accept being harassed by the lesser people like you were being harassed by Berry Kent. We use or huge brains to belittle our opponent, we study martial arts or we torture them mentally. Us intellectuals have many ways of using our brains to defeat our opponent’s muscles. But what we would never do in our whole life is letting a weak, old woman do our dirty work like your grandma did. That is just a huge act of cowardice and shows that you don’t have any honour or pride which is very important to us intellectuals.

And what we also abhor is cheating on our partner. It is possible that Pandora isn’t the perfect match for you and that Barbara suits you better, but then we end our relationship in a decent way. We tell our partner what is wrong and after that we start with a new one. Us intellectuals would never start a new relationship while our old one isn’t over yet. These are the main reasons why you are NOT an intellectual and why you should stop calling yourself one because you make us intellectuals look bad. Maybe if you rigorously change your way of life you can become worthy of the title intellectual one day. But I personally don’t believe you will ever succeed in doing this, so I just suggest you become a postman, janitor or something like that.

Best regards,

Sir Peter McFrog of the British order of intellectuals.