The growing pains of Adrian Mole door Sue Townsend

I.TECHNICAL DATA:

Name author: Sue Townsend
Year of birth: 2 April, 1946
Information author: Sue Townsend was born in Leicester, in England. She had two sisters. When she was young she loved to read. When Sue was 18, she married and they got 3 children. She devorced, and she married again with another man. She started to write musicals and plays at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester.Later she had succes with her books. Now she is a grandmother.
Title: The growing pains of Adrian Mole
Explanation of the title: Adrian Mole is a fourteen years old boy, who writes in a diary every day. When he grows up, it’s not always problemless.
My own title: Diary by a fake intellectual teenager.
Explanation of my own title: Adrian Mole thinks he’s an intellect, but for real, he is quite stupid and naief.
Number of pages: 203
Year of publication: 1985
Publishing house: Methuen

Setting: Adrian Mole lives in London, in a cul-de-sac. I don’t think it’s a beautiful house, because he often complains about it. Most of the time the story is about his home or school. The story begins at Sunday 4 April ( that’s where ‘The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ stopped) and it ends at Thursday 2 June, a year later.
Characters: Main character: Adrian Albert Mole – He thinks he is like an adult, but in real life he is just like a teenager. But a special one!
Minor characters: Mum, Dad, Grandmother, Nigel, Pandora, Bert Baxter, Queenie, Sabre, John Tydeman, Barry Kent, Mr Lucas, Doreen Slater (Stick insect), Hamish Mancini, Sharon Botts, Mr Lambert, fam. Singh, aunt Susan, Gloria, Rosie, Henderson.

Theme: How to cope with teenage-problems and growing-up-problems, because Adrian meet them and he has his own way to cope with them.
Plot: A fifteen year old boy has to cope with his problems at school and elsewhere. He has got a feministic girlfriend. His mother is pregnant, and the old girlfriend of his father, too. He reads very much, and thinks he’s an intellectual. He doesn’t wear the right clothes and he acts a bit strange.
Genre: a novel in the form of a diary. It’s a story about a boy who describes his problems.

II.CONTENTS:

Story: Adrian Albert Mole is a fifteen-year old boy who lives in London with his parents and the dog. His best friend’s called Nigel. There’s a war with Argentina and his father wants to take part in it, because he doesn’t like his job. Adrian is obsessed by sex and he wants Pandora to show him her nipple, so she breaks off. Adrian finds out his mother is pregnant and he doesn’t like it because he doesn’t want the child becomes just like him. His American friend Hamish Mancini comes over to see him, but he spends most of his time with Pandora. Nigel arranges a date between Adrian and Sharon Botts, but it doesn’t work out. Queenie, the wife of Bert Baxter, an old friend of Adrian (he had to take care of him in the last book), has a bad turn and must go to the hospital. Pandora Helps to take care of Bert and they are together again. Adrian and his parents are going to boring Skegness on summer holiday. Adrian finds out that Doreen Slater, the ex-girlfriend of his father, is also pregnant from his father. His father leaves home to live with his new family at his mother’s home. The rest of the holiday is very boring for Adrian, because Pandora is on holiday. When the school begins, there’s a new teacher: Mr. Lambert. He is very interested in the students, but everybody wants to help him with his family problems. His mother wants to get money from the Social Securaty, and the people from the Social Securaty say that there will come a giro, but there will not. Adrian writes even a poem called: Waiting for the giro. His mother’s protest is stupid: she is on the paper’s frontpage with Adrian and she is on the radio. Her actions are a succes. They are helped. Adrian writes much poems and sends them to John Tydeman from the BBC, but without succes. Later Adrian’s sister is born. They call her Rosie. His mother gets a postnatal depression, and there are many problems. Bert Baxter has got problems too, because Queenie died. Adrian can’t play a role in the Christmas play, because he has got problems with his voice. Nigel thinks he is gay, but it’s just a fase. The Christmas time are normally awful at the Mole family, but this year his aunt Susan and her lesbien girlfriend Gloria come. On New Year’s Day Adrian has got new year resolutions again. There are negotiations going on between Adrian’s parents for a return to their married state. Mr. Lucas, the ex-boyfriend of his mother, wants to have Rosie. He takes a lawyer. Adrian writes a poem on the toilets, and is grounded for a week. He becomes a membership of Barry Kent’s club, so he’s all day at Barry Kent’s and on the street, but he thinks it’s boring. It’s over between him and Pandora, and Pandora has got a new boy-friend, a nerd called Henderson. Adrian decides to walk away from home to get attention, but after a few days, he’s noticed. He’s feeling really bad, because of sleeping on the streets. After a week the vicar’s wife picks him up from the streets and put him into a bed. When he arrives home, he goes to a doctor who says that he has got a depression. He stays in bed.