ipl-logo

Lily Forrester Analysis

981 Words4 Pages

Lily Forrester is the chief character of the Lily Forrester series of novels by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg the American author best known for the writing of mystery and thriller novels. The first novel of the Lily Forrester series was Mitigating Circumstances that was first published in 1992 to much critical acclaim. The first novel was so popular that Jonathan Demme the award-winning author bought the film rights to the work in 1993. The first novel in the series was meant to be a standalone novel and Rosenberg would not write another title in the series for eight years. In 2010, she wrote the second novel in the series Buried Evidence, which was followed in quick succession by two other novels in the still ongoing series. Rosenberg worked for …show more content…

Writing about the struggles of women, the novels follow the life of Lily who experiences resentment from her husband and sexism at work. Although she gets her much deserved token, it is watered down by the fact that she gets it much as a token rather than as a reward for her ambition, abilities, and drive. The lead character is assaulted because they desire and enjoy adulterous se and are ready to leave abusive relationships. Through Lily, the vulnerability of women is put into focus as she becomes more vulnerable to abuse once she decides to leave her husband. She only does find redemption by getting into a relationship with another man, taking up her role as a protective mother, foregoing her ambitions, and being proactive in seeking justice for herself, and her daughter. The men are painted as predatory monsters that do not care about the feelings of their partners even when they undergo traumatic events such as rape. All of these aspects are perpetrated by a dysfunctional and cynical legal system that is very inefficient. Through all of it, Lily Forrester is the embodiment of resistance to the corrupt legal system through her actions to seek justice outside of …show more content…

Lily Forrester the California ADA gets promotion to head the Sex Crimes Unit, which eventually leads to the breakdown of her marriage. Freed from her abusive husband she quickly climbs the ladder to become judge only for a man to break into her house and rape her to watch while he rapes her daughter. She soon finds the address and picture of the man in a bunch of case files she was working on. She has the option of either avenging her child as a vigilante or taking the criminal to court for legal justice. The novel addresses the subtleties of a traumatic event that leaves the lead character in a tight spot. Mitigating Circumstances is a gripping novel that portrays the universal battle between vengeance outside the law and following the inefficient or corrupt legal systems that may be in conformity with ones feelings but highly inefficient in delivering

Show More
Related
1388 Words | 6 Pages

The novel goes through many recurring themes such as child abuse, social and economic differences, and legitimacy. These themes not only impact the main character but all the characters as a whole. It is the harrowing story of how Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright, a child must learn to cope and deal with the many terrible atrocities that are inflicted upon her by her stepfather, “Daddy Glen.” Before Bone could even coherently make a judgment upon herself she was labeled as an outcast. She was a sin and mistake that should be labeled as such for the world to know about it.

Read More
830 Words | 4 Pages

She explains how happy, but conflicted because her parents refuse money from her and live as homeless people. She writes the memoir to work through her feelings and share’s her story. Some topics that I could identify in the text are: poverty, teenage pregnancy and child rights. The issue of poverty is portrayed from the beginning of the book to the end.

Read More
1329 Words | 6 Pages

The story touches on things such as poverty, alcoholism, bullying, abuse, etc. It is an extremely eye-opening, humbling book that shows you that you can change your life around no matter how you were raised. This book is relatable to many people, including children and teenagers who are or may have gone through some of the same things that Jeannette and her siblings did. The theme that most resonated with me while reading the book was alcoholism. It is something that has been a part of my family life for a long time.

Read More
940 Words | 4 Pages

She is reminded of the violence that torn not only communities apart but families as well. How the social norms of the day restricted people’s lives and held them in the balance of life and death. Her grandfathers past life, her grandmother cultural silence about the internment and husband’s affair, the police brutality that cause the death of 4 young black teenagers. Even her own inner conflicts with her sexuality and Japanese heritage. She starts to see the world around her with a different

Read More
1055 Words | 5 Pages

Lily begins helpless and afraid, but as she makes her way through the segregated South, she finds self

Read More
1302 Words | 6 Pages

Lily suffers from living with an abusive father. She also deals with the guilt of accidentally killing her mother, feeling unwanted, and not knowing the true reason her mother left. For example, “The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up.

Read More
1401 Words | 6 Pages

In the story, Kidd’s use of characterization successfully reveals the theme that people's lives are more complex than they appear. Kidd demonstrates this theme using the characterization of Lily, T. Ray, May, and Deborah. One character that Sue Monk Kidd uses to portray the theme, is the main character Lily. In the beginning of the story, the author shows that Lily can be both mature and immature at times. An example of her maturity in the text is when she says, “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life” (Kidd 2).

Read More
1426 Words | 6 Pages

Continuing, another theme that led us through Lily’s adventure of growing up was her discovering how important storytelling was. She was going through gruesome horrid things, and when she read things like Shakespeare she realized how important it was because it helped her escape to a fantasy world for a little bit of time. Lastly, Lily learns the power of the female community. Lily grew up without a mother, so for a large chunk of her life she didn’t know the real power the female community held.

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, a woman who dreamt of love, was on a journey to establish her voice and shape her own identity. She lived with Nanny, her grandmother, in a community inhabited by black and white people. This community only served as an antagonist to Janie, because she did not fit into the society in any respect. Race played a large factor in Janie being an outcast, because she was black, but had lighter skin than all other black people due to having a Caucasian ancestry.

Read More
1218 Words | 5 Pages

Another element in this novel is Melinda’s inner conflict, man vs. self. What Melinda has been through greatly affected her everyday life. She struggles with depression, dislikes her appearance, and feels ashamed of herself for something that isn 't her fault: “I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else...even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me” (Anderson 51). Andy Evans, the senior who raped her, made her feel worthless. This situation is much like the one in the novel The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

This story spread around her town and Lily never had friends because no mother wanted their child hanging out with a child killer. She was never taken care of and she titled herself as “unlovable”. It was not that she was unlovable, it was that she wasn’t loved by the people that never knew what love was like T. Ray. She had many things she couldn’t be apart of as well like not being able to be in the girl club for young ladies. She had no mother and Rosaleen, their African American nanny/maid, could not be her female figure because Rosaleen was African

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

She finds herself in a small town called Tiburon in South Carolina, living with August Boatwright who was once her mother’s maid. After staying in Tiburon for a while, Lily calls her father, curious if he knows what her favourite colour is. They only spoke for a short period of

Read More
1574 Words | 7 Pages

By an anonymous writer later revealed as Skeeter also known as Eugenia Phelan. Skeeter, a white woman, returns to her hometown (Mississippi) to discover that her motherly nanny Constantine has left but no one tells what happened. Soon Skeeter realizes the injustice her society practices and decides to write a book where voices of black will be raised. She approaches Aibileen for sharing her narrative to which Aibileen responds positively and also let’s Minny in their secret. Minny, Aibileen’s friend, another black help, reveals a secret about Miss Hilly that ensures Miss Hilly’s silence after the publication of their writing project.

Read More
635 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever felt like you have to act a certain way because you saw something on TV? Many shows portray women stereotypically and enforces the concepts of gender roles. The entertainment industry has also displayed homophobic actions in their shows. The entertainment industry's representation of cultural gender roles and sexual orientation are depicted in the show One Day At Time as it follows a second generation Cuban-American family battling against modern challenges. Elena Alverez, a freshman in high school struggles with fitting into the cultural norms that are put on women.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Women's roles have changed throughout time. Both The Chrysanthemums, written by John Steinback, and The Story of an Hour, by Kate Choppin, are stories that use both direct and indirect characterization on women and their roles in their time. Throughout The Chrysanthemums, there are examples of our protagonist Elisa Allen struggling as a woman in the 1930s Great Depression society. In The Story of an Hour, it focuses on the fact that the protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard, feels oppressed and stripped of her freedom as a person. In addition, these two women grew from their pain, but were still seeking for more.

Read More

More about Lily Forrester Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document