In the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, Flavia de Luce, an eleven year old chemist, tries to solve the murder of a total stranger that died in front of her in her garden. Throughout the book, Flavia seems to have an intense hatred of her sister Ophelia. However, Flavia seems to really look up to and love her older sister.
Flavia and Ophelia have a spiteful relationship. In the beginning of the book, Ophelia is rude and annoying to Flavia, so then Flavia melts her lipstick and adds an oil to it to make Ophelia break out in pimples. She then tracks the progress of her little prank. On page 12, Flavia says, "And Feely--Miss Snotrag--hadn't even noticed it was gone." This shows that Flavia and her sister don't have the best of relationships. I also shows that even when she's thinking about her, Flavia views Ophelia negatively. On page 13, Ophelia says to Flavia, "Where's my lipstick, you little swine?" The fact that Ophelia calls Flavia a little swine is another indicator that they have a hateful relationship. I think the author includes their sibling rivalry in the book to show that even if you are related to someone, they aren't necessarily your friend all the time.
Although Flavia and Ophelia aren't exactly nice to each other, they still love one another. Towards the middle of the book, the reader can tell more that Flavia loves Ophelia. On page 104, Flavia says, "long after my sister Ophelia is dead and gone, whenever I think of her, the first memory that will come to mind will be her gentle touch at the piano." This detail says a lot about how Flavia admires her sister. When Flavia thinks about Ophelia's talent in a kind way, it shows that she loves her. Also, Flavia tries to set Ophelia up with a boy that Ophelia thinks is cute. This is another example that however misguided, shows that Flavia loves Ophelia.
In conclusion, even though it seems that Flavia and Ophelia seem to have a rivalry, they actually love each other but are too afraid to admit it.
I also read this book and sort of ignored all character development and stuck to the mystery at hand. I never noticed how Flavia doesn't really despise her sister like her sister does flavia.
ReplyDeleteI read this book too and, like Chase, didn't think much about the character development beyond the basic "Flavia and Feely don't like each other, Flavia and Dogger share a friendship, etc." It was really interesting to read your post, as it helped build on an already great story. Now that I think of it, it's true that Flavia never showed true feelings of passionate hate towards Feely, which is an honorable thing. Thanks for bringing up something I had never thought of before!
ReplyDeleteGreat post,
Adrian.