Dumplin By Julie Murphy: Character Analysis

In the book Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy, the mother of Willowdean, the main character, shows development throughout the book through a change of thought about Willowdean. Willowdeans mom won a pageant when she was a teenager, and later on in life helped run the pageant in her hometown; this caused Willowdeans mom to have great pride in her win and a specific ideology of what the pageant is about. It is rare for someone out of what is considered normal in pageants to try to compete. To fit that standard of what is considered normal, Willowdeans mom went out of her way every pageant season to go on extreme diets and workouts to maintain the perfect image she had created. However, Willowdean is what her mother would consider the opposite of her; Willowdean is more on the bigger side, and her mom does everything to try to slim her down to be just like her believing it would make Willowdean happier. This has been an ongoing thing, as Willowdean stated, “This is not new territory for my mom and me. She had me on

Throughout the book, Willowdean ends up signing up for the pageant that her mother won and takes so much pride in. Her mom, though, sees this as being rebellious and scolds her for it; Willowdeans mother never realized the true worth of her daughter until the very last chapters. Willowdeans mom realizes that the dress may not fit her, and this is a crucial moment since earlier in the book, Willowdeans mom was trying to get Willowdean not to do the pageant since the dress would not fit and it could be an embarrassment, on her name. However, with it not fitting, it showed how Willowdean felt when that happened. However, Willowdean acted differently from her mother; she helped her fix it so it would fit and told her to keep doing it despite all that her mother had done to her. The kindness that Willowdean showed to her mom was what made her mother realize how amazing Willodean