A Rose For The Anzac Boys Character Analysis

‘A Rose for the Anzac Boys’ by Jackie French holds a very interesting character, Anne. She is an upper class citizen who was determined to be married off like her other sisters. Her parents wanted it done in the first season but Anne has one problem. Spots. With this imperfection, Anne has a low self-esteem and confidence. From the very beginning Anne’s main issue was her struggle to realise she was worth more than her looks. In hopes of proving to her parents that she is worth something, she took the opportunity to help at the canteen. Anne shows us through determination and hard work, life may not end up with the happy ending you expected. Instead, life can finish in something completely different but as good.

Anne needed to show people that she was more than what met the eye. Her parents were expecting her to be perfect in every way possible. Trying to please your parents is one of the hardest struggles a teenager could face. Anne’s self-esteem dropped. “One’s job is to look so totally ravishing that the marriage settlements are signed and sealed by the end of one’s first season”. Anne is so accustomed to having to be the perfect daughter and
She rid herself of her spots but was soon injured. While guiding Midge along the road with the lamp she was struck with a bomb which left her face disfigured. Anne had to return home to recover from the accident but she never did quite gain back that confidence. Anne thought the men would prefer to see a pretty face over a face that held memories of the war. In Anne’s letter to Midge at the end of the novel she says “Gavin doesn’t mind my face. Or rather he minds the pain behind it. But he says none of us came out of the war unscathed”. This quote shows that Anne’s husband doesn’t care how she looks but more about what memories they both bought back from the war and what pain comes with it. She found someone who saw her for her heart and not her face. She felt love from another as well as