Clara's day

Clara’s day by Penelope Lively
1. A summary of the text, Clara’s day:
The text is about a girl who overcomes her fear of being herself, by taking her clothes off at a school assembly. The text started with she was at school, to a school assembly. Suddenly in the middle of the Head speech, Clara began to take all of her clothes off. After she had taking all of her clothes off, she walked past the Head and out through the doors to the entrance lobby. She walked up to her classroom and waited for a teacher to come. The teacher came with Clara’s clothes. After Clara’s first period a prefects came and told Clara that the Head wanted to see her in the Head’s office. Clara talked for a long time with the Head. The Head was trying to figure out what the reason for Clara’s action was. The head came with a lot of opportunities to why Clara did it. But Clara didn’t want to tell it. The Head ends the conversation by saying that she would write a letter for Clara’s partners. After school, Clara goes home. When she comes home, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Stan are already home. Clara’s mother is the in kitchen reading an article, when Clara comes home. Clara goes into the kitchen and talks with her mother. Her mother opens the letter from the Head and she begins to laugh. The mother can’t believe it. She had never thought that Clara could do such a thing. The mother shows the letter to Stan and he laughs to. The mother has no actually comment on why Clara did it, she’s only laughing at it. The mother and Stan lives and Clara sits back in the kitchen, and she starts to cry.

2. A character sketch of Clara:
Clara is probably around the age of 15-17. She has always been very shy and not so confided in herself. After her episode at the school assembly, she went from immature to mature. She was trying of her boundaries by take all of her clothes of in public. It seems like she doesn’t have so many friends, but after her episode everybody comes op to her and says “well done” and pats her on her back. I think that she had some problems with people thoughts about her. She wanted to show people what kind of person she really was, and the only way she could think of to show it, was to show people her true self.

3. Discuss the way Clara’s mother and Stan react when they receive the letter:
They are very surprised over Clara’s episode. At the beginning they laughed at it and thought it was very funny, they had never thought that she could do such a thing. Clara’s mother begins to talk about how well behaved Clara was as a little girl, and now her mother can’t believe that Clara did it. Her mother and Stan are speechless and they can’t really understand why she did it. I think that the reason to why they react like they do, is because they are really surprised and amazed. They probably had never imagined that Clara would do such a thing. I don’t think there are any parents who can foresee their children take their clothes off in public.
I must have been a shock for Clara mother. That is probably why se reacted the way she did. She laughed because she didn’t know what to say or do.

4. Consider if Clara’s behavior has anything to do with where she did it: I think that Clara is annoyed and tired of being the little, shy girl. And she wanted to show people that she also can do something impulsive. She wanted to show people that she was not just a normal girl and she doesn’t always do what she was being told, but she was something special, just like everybody else. She was tired of being in the “box” that she has been put in. And I think that the reason why she takes off her clothes at the school assembly is that she wants to show people that no one can control her anymore. She makes her own decisions and she says want is on her mind and she doesn’t care about what people think about it. I think that she are coming out of her “box” and are on the track to becoming an adult.