Maggie Alderson’s short story,”Are You Ready, Boots?” revolves around the life of a girl called Lulu. On a four day trip to New York, with her friends Betty and Spencer, she buys a perfect pair of boots. They make her feel like a star. However, when she returns home to London, she does not wear, or even look at her brand new, 50% off Manolos, for six months.
On the night of the grand opening of a restaurant, she is talked into wearing her “new” boots by Spencer. This is where she meets her soon-to-be boyfriend, Charlie March-Edwards. He is the stereotypical knight in shiny armour; handsome, has a great job and he even rides a Porsche. At first things are great, but little by little, Lulu begins to think of him as boring. However, when he proposes, she melts at the sight of the grand diamond, and swiftly agrees. However, when Charlie tells her that he thinks that her Manolos are awful, she puts on her boots and start walking. The boots fits her more than Charlie could ever do.
Lulu is the female protagonist and the first person narrator of the story. She is probably between 20 and 30 years old, since she is old enough to get married, but young enough to go to clubs and bars and get drunk with her friends. She is a young woman who does not miss anything in life, even though she is not directly wealthy. She has money to spend on expensive boots, French manicures and she drinks champagne when she’s goes out. However she is still ashamed of the price of the boots, and very impressed by Charlie’s Porsche. That shows that she likes being able to afford things, likes the feeling of being able to support her. It might also be the reason why she buys the expensive boots in the first place. She cares about her appearance and is willing to spend a lot of money on it. In that way she is superficial and cares a lot about looks and social status. Even when she starts noticing tiny “faults” about Charlie, she ignores them because she thinks that