Lulu Lamartine In Chapter 15: The Good Tears

Lulu Lamartine, a woman who shows remarkable progression and potential throughout this novel, is nothing less than a strong, independent woman who people should strive to be for themselves. Readers may look at her and see a woman who lacks confidence and turns to men to fulfill that lack, but she has so much more integrity and strength hidden behind those few negative features that people do not tend to see. Lulu is not a woman who deserves judgement or negativity because she has an abundant amount of confidence driven within her, she is a devoted mother and adores her kids profusely, and she loves very hard for the people in her life which is exactly why she is an example to follow. Confidence is not something Lulu Lamartine should lack,

Nearing the end in the novel, Lulu’s house is started on fire by Nector Kashpaw. In Chapter 15: The Good Tears, we find out that one of Lulu’s children, Lyman, was stuck inside the house while the fire was ablaze and Lulu went back in there to save his life. She states: I threw rice in the air like a hundred weddings and took to my heels. I ran in a beeline wasting no breath, no time…The roof was about to cave and Lyman was nowhere to be found. Yet a mother’s heart was certain that her son was in the house…He was nuzzled in my nightgowns…I heaved him out the bedroom window and fell after him into the hollyhocks. (282) Just that quote right there shows how much devotion Lulu has for her kids and how she’s willing to risk her own life for them. Especially with how quickly she ran into the burning house without even the tiniest bit of hesitation just to save her child. It is a quality of selflessness and the ability to self-sacrifice for others which are two extraordinary qualities to

But, Lulu further goes to state “that’s not true. I was in love with the whole world and all that lived in its rainy arms” and “I’d open my mouth wide, my ears wide, my heart, and I’d let everything inside” (272). Lulu loved people like no other and had the ability to let multiple people into her life to try and love her back. She “loved what she saw” and she was proud to have gotten it (273). She later states: I’m going to tell you about the men. There were times I let them in just for being part of the world. I believe that angels in the body make us foreign to ourselves when touching. In this way, I’d slip my body to the earth…and for a few moments I would blend in with all that forced my heart. (273) Saying that, she loved the people that she was with and gave all of her heart for each of them in a very poetic way. She claimed that Nector Kashpaw was her “first love” and the one she would always remember (273). The guys that came after him were all married out of “fondness” which she enjoyed every minute of, but they just didn’t compare to Nector (273). Clearly after saying that, Lulu wanted to be loved back and she wanted so much more than just a marriage; she wanted a deep, true love- one that compared to Nector