Adrian Mole

JANUARY

Setting

The story begins on January 1st (Thursday) 1981, during Bank Holiday in UK. A begins his diary with his New Year’s resolutions. At this period of the year, it is cold. The Epiphany follows, on the 6th.

The place is not often described. A lives in a house with his parents, and is it not so clean. He has neighbours and has a mainstream house (stairs, kitchen, bedroom,…). He probably lives in a city (Leicester) provided there is a school, a shopping centre, a betting shop, a doctor, and a vet not too far from where he lives. He also goes to BB’s, which is hard to see from the road, has a hedge and is really dirty.

A also writes the dates of the holidays and the moon cycle but let’s hope it’s not important.

Character

1. Adrian Mole

Description: age, looks, behaviour

He is 13 ¾. He doesn’t describe himself at all but we get to know him. However, it is difficult to know how he looks like. We only know that he has spots and that he is smaller than average. He is rather introvert so it is not easy to know how he acts either. He is also really clumsy (eggs, radio).

See Thoughts to know more about his personality.

Action: what they do

He goes to school, helps his community with the Good Samaritans organisation, writes a diary, reads, writes poems/letters to the BBC,… He is not really active, but he prefers spending time on “intellectual activities” such as thinking,…

See MAJOR EVENTS for more information.

Reaction: how others react to them, what others think about them

People’s reaction to him is normal, but the way he feels it makes it completely different.

His father thinks he is quite naïve (Mr Lucas), his mother thinks he is capricious (PE, vitamins), Nigel is friendly as a teenager friend usually is (takes him to a party), his teachers are treating him as anyone else (which he doesn’t understand), his grandmother kind of adore him (treats him better than the rest of the family, gives him some money, invites him), Mr Scruton and Dr Taylor thinks he is not reliable and he exaggerates, the Lucas don’t really care about him, Pandora is quite friendly,… Only BB acts a bit strange with him, but he appears to be a strange person, no matter who he’s with.

Thoughts: what the main characters think

 Intellectual and antisocial:

He believes he is an undiscovered intellectual because he nearly understands Malcolm Muggeridge, he has a “bad home” and a poor diet, he doesn’t like punk, etc. He feels a bit alone as he considered his whole relatives stupid. Furthermore, none of his teacher has noticed his exceptional intelligence. At this moment of the book, he would like to become a doctor (and it doesn’t seem to be challenging).

Therefore, he has joined the library and he often read. It is true that he is a bit different from most of his friends (he make research in dictionary, he writes a diary and poems, doesn’t like punk, doesn’t behave like most teenagers who do stupid things but better judges them,…) but he is not so capable of understanding things that fast as he is quite naïve. He also has a strange definition of what “being intellectual” means, as he thinks Mr Lucas isn’t an intellectual because of his job (insurance man), but could have been one because of his corduroy trousers.

 Worrier

It can be due to his age or his personal behaviour.

He is often obsessed about things that have almost no importance at all (his spots, his height,…) and tend to be paranoid (goes to the doctor, wants vitamins, does stretching exercises,…).

Moreover, he doesn’t trust anyone (mom and Nigel say they don’t see his spot but he finds reasons why they would lie).

 Pessimistic

In the same way, he often exaggerates what happens to him (“ill health”).

He probably has a lack in attention, so he always feels deserted, thinks people are not grateful (should they be?), the current events in his life are the worst that could ever happen to him,…

He imagines what is the worst that could happen (alcoholics parents, murdered mum, police, RSPCA,…).

That’s why he uses plenty of phrases such as “just my luck!/worse luck!/about time! So much for helping the poor/the NHS/… but I’m not complaining/that’s the gratitude I got for doing this”. Nonetheless, when other people are complaining/suffering/…, he just plays down what they are going through (big deal!).

 Critical

He is also very critical, especially of his parents (which are far from being perfect but still) while he is not a model either. So he thinks his father “could get done”, or that sth is his mother’s fault, etc. Anyway, it is never because of him.

According to him, his parents are stupid, unworthy to have him as son, liars,… He is also easily disgusted (disgusting state of the house,…).

However, his criticism are rarely coherent (it’s disgusting no to wear the cardigans you receive as a present when people are starving). He often blames his parents about how they treat the dog, and then complain about it too.

He always pretends to know exactly why people behave like they do, probably as a part of his intellectual prominence, and often portrays others’ actions in a way that makes him look superior.

 Self-centred

He always describes situation in ways that show how brave he is, and sometimes he is completely incoherent, just to blame the others. For example, in the beginning, he says he prefers going to school than staying home with his parents, but when his mother “takes care” of Mr Lucas, or gets her job, he blames her for not taking care of him and his father. This dramatic version of his life that he gives may be due to his age, or his personality.

Among other things, he often exaggerates the situation (headache because of mom’s typing), the way he feels “I’m too weak to write when Paniguel … nobody has noticed that I haven’t eaten … I took two junior aspirins”, he uses capital letters and “!” to show his emotions; and all of this makes the situation looks even more ridiculous (“none

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