Martha Boyle Character Analysis

Martha Boyle is an intriguing twelve-year old, who is full of positive character traits. Throughout the novel, she experiences changes in her emotions and feelings because she endures many obstacles. At the beginning of the story, she starts off very insecure and guilty, due to Olive Barstow’s death. However, while she resides at Godbee’s house in Cape Cod, she begins to mature, and view life and the world from a different perspective. As the story goes on, Martha begins to develop as a character, due to the several challenges she faces, and the unhealthy relationships she forms with people. In conclusion, Martha Boyle is a very likeable person; she has various admirable character traits, which she gained from the many lessons she learned

Since she was staying at Godbee’s for the summer, she constantly felt comfortable and relaxed. However, when events began to occur her confidence and self-esteem began to drop. For example, in chapter 48 when she realized Jimmy (a former friend) tricked her into kissing him on camera for a bet, she was not only devastated, but emotionally hurt. She felt useless, and embarrassed. This made her feel like curling up in the corner of a room, and crying until she ran out of tears. Martha became more vulnerable as the story went on, but each time something happened to her, it only made her stronger. For example, in chapter 53 she nearly drowned from being pulled into the ocean. From having a near death experience, she understood how Olive felt when that car was racing towards her. This influenced Martha’s vision of life, and the world. Every once in a while she would critically think about the consequences of her actions and how they could affect the people around her. She grew to be more mature and reflective, by redeeming herself. In the last chapter, Martha dropped by Olive’s home, to give something to her mother. However, she realized she moved somewhere far away, but Martha knew a solution to the problem. She grabbed the bottle of ocean water, and used her finger to write Olive on the porch. The name dried up, in the sunlight as Martha gazed into the sky. She learned how to cope with the situation, and after she left the house, she realized she could not think about Olive Barstow anymore. This shows she did something beautiful, in order to remember Olive, and so she could fulfill her dream, to be with the ocean. In conclusion, Martha has shown true maturity throughout this novel, even though some roadblocks came in her way, she was able to ignore them and move