Make Lemonade is a young adult novel written in free verse that tells the story of Verna LaVaughn and her relationship with Jolly. In part I and II of Make Lemonade, the readers are introduced to Verna LaVaughn, a fourteen-year-old young lady looking to raise money to go to college. She responds to a babysitting ad posted by Jolly, a seventeen-year-old single mom of two children. Verna babysits Jolly’s children, Jeremy and Jilly every day after school. As the novel progresses, Verna slowly learns more about Jolly and why she is in her current situation. Verna starts working for Jolly for free and continues to hide this detail from her mother. Verna encourages Jolly to enroll in a program at her high school that supports single moms so they
…show more content…
The motif in Jolly’s life is “nobody told me” (Wolff 122). Jolly skipped class because Jeremy had chicken pox. She didn’t tell the school, and in result, Jolly almost got kicked out of her program. Verna thought this was foolish and scolded Jolly for not informing anyone the reason why she couldn’t come to school. Jolly replied “nobody told me,” and Verna imagined a big list in her brain of all the people in her life that told her important things: your folks, teachers, girlfriends (Wolff 122). It was after this incident where Verna had a better understanding of Jolly’s point of view. Jolly didn’t have folks, teachers, or girlfriends up until that point in her life to guide her, while Verna did. In this moment, Verna better understood Jolly’s lack of support and how different that was from her own support system. Because of this understanding, Verna became more sympathetic towards Jolly and could better apply sociological imagination to understand Jolly’s circumstance and …show more content…
The theme of making lemonade out of lemons is referenced throughout the novel and by the end, the reader understands how Jolly and Verna made their lemonade. Jolly took the lemons in her life, her lack of education, money, family, and being a teenage mom, to turn them into lemonade by getting an education to better herself for her children. Verna took the lemons in her life, the absence of her father and her family’s lack of money, and made lemonade by being studious and working hard to go to college. Verna matured by opening her heart to Jolly, while Jolly matured by learning to take responsibility for her actions to become a better mother for her
The motif in Jolly’s life is “nobody told me” (Wolff 122). Jolly skipped class because Jeremy had chicken pox. She didn’t tell the school, and in result, Jolly almost got kicked out of her program. Verna thought this was foolish and scolded Jolly for not informing anyone the reason why she couldn’t come to school. Jolly replied “nobody told me,” and Verna imagined a big list in her brain of all the people in her life that told her important things: your folks, teachers, girlfriends (Wolff 122). It was after this incident where Verna had a better understanding of Jolly’s point of view. Jolly didn’t have folks, teachers, or girlfriends up until that point in her life to guide her, while Verna did. In this moment, Verna better understood Jolly’s lack of support and how different that was from her own support system. Because of this understanding, Verna became more sympathetic towards Jolly and could better apply sociological imagination to understand Jolly’s circumstance and …show more content…
The theme of making lemonade out of lemons is referenced throughout the novel and by the end, the reader understands how Jolly and Verna made their lemonade. Jolly took the lemons in her life, her lack of education, money, family, and being a teenage mom, to turn them into lemonade by getting an education to better herself for her children. Verna took the lemons in her life, the absence of her father and her family’s lack of money, and made lemonade by being studious and working hard to go to college. Verna matured by opening her heart to Jolly, while Jolly matured by learning to take responsibility for her actions to become a better mother for her