Make Lemonade Environment

According to the American Institute of Stress, it says: “The number one cause of stress, is the individual 's environment.” Many people in the world are facing failure, or going through rough times, because of what is around them. In the novel, Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jolly’s family and LaVaughn transition through many changes based on the environment around them. Because of transitioning through their childhood, apartment, and school, the characters transform their identities from negative to positive.

Childhood plays a big role when looking at how the environment shapes Jolly’s family and LaVaughns identity. For example, Jeremy’s identity is shaped when LaVaughn is teaching him life-needed skills: “Jeremy, you have to learn

The poor condition affects the different moods of the characters. More times than not, it is a negative mood. Jolly knows this, and tries battling against it. For example: “I’m capable of giving Jilly and Jolly a good bath tonight” (91). This piece of evidence is important because it is showing the change of how Jolly is stepping up, and getting out of her comfort zone, because she knows that this is what it is going to take in order to live a somewhat decent life. Jolly’s actions influenced by the apartment, are also influencing Jeremy’s too. “Jeremy now knows how to make his bed and pick up his socks” (132). Jeremy is starting to catch on too. In the beginning of the story, Jeremy was incapable of doing chores around the house. All of these newly developed actions that are taking place by Jolly’s family is creating LaVaughn to act more responsibly. Right before Jilly’s occurrence with the ambulance is when this took place. “ I get down on my hands and knees and pick up the vomit” (175). This quote is talking about LaVaughn. This scene in the book shows a lot. In the early pages of the book, LaVaughn wasn’t really self motivated. But after she saw Jolly, Jilly, and Jeremy stepping up, in addition to her mother being on her, she knew that she needed to pitch in too. The apartment started what seemed like a

The Mom’s Up Program didn’t really shape much of LaVaughn, Jeremy and Jilly’s identity, but rather more so Jolly’s. It starts off by mentioning a change that Jolly is hoping to make. “I want to find a real job” (118). This quote is really important because in the early parts of the book, she wasn’t really self motivated. She was struggling to find a job, and didn’t have the relationships for it. She develops the urge to step up, and now make something of herself. This really shows how she matured from the early stages until this point. Another way the Mom’s Up Program impacted Jolly was it got happy about something for once. “Now Jolly never got excited in liking a job before, I know for a fact” (169). This is also showing how, when she actually makes the attempt to find something she likes and is good at, it makes her feel a certain way. Again, this shows her maturing. Both of the quotes lead into the final example. “I realize that you can get through rough times” (196). This piece of evidence is probably the most powerful example yet. Jolly has gone through times people can’t even imagine. She faces powerful adversity as a teenager, which puts her in a hole. She didn’t let that stop her though. This represents how she made the change to want to get better, and developed a self-motivator within