Monday, November 06, 2006

Oh, Dorrie

I had trouble liking Dorrie. She seemed clingy and a little dim to me ... a nice girl, but weak. Maybe I'm the only one to perceive her that way, but ...

Do you think her behavior was setting-appropriate (knocked up in '50s America), or did the author try to build favor for Bud because he had to be the protagonist for the first third of the book? (Dorrie's death wasn't nice at all, but I think it would have been harder to read a 65-page plot to knock off the spirited Ellen.)
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4 comments:

Erin said...

I found Dorrie annoying, too. Her behavior probably was setting-appropriate, what with all the girls going to college just to snag husbands. But that doesn't make it any less annoying. I found Bud pretty likeable in Part 1, even during the plotting.

2:46 PM, November 06, 2006
cl said...

It occurs to me now that maybe that's why there was the part about Ellen wanting Dorrie to go her own way, that she was clingy with everyone, not just Bud.

5:53 PM, November 06, 2006
Erin said...

Oh, that's a good point, cl.

11:38 AM, November 07, 2006
kc said...

I had a soft spot for Dorrie. I think she really loved Bud and wasn't just trying to pin down a man. And she seemed to see Bud as a way of getting away from her domineering father. I like that she didn't give a rat's ass about her father's money. Being pregnant in that era is almost unimaginable now — the shame and loneliness and desperation. I can see how a girl might be a little clingy in those circumstances. A pregnancy could ruin your life.

9:32 AM, November 08, 2006

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