Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Classics Challenge- July Prompt- Lasting Impression


This month's prompt is Lasting Impression

Choose one of the Classics you've read this year or are currently reading. 
What is a moment, quote, or character that you feel will stay with you? Years from now, when some of the details have faded, that lasting impression the book has left you with... what is it? --or why did it fail to leave an impression?


The book I read this month was Jean Webster's Daddy- Long- Legs.


Daddy- Long- Legs is an epistolary novel with its main protagonist being Jerusha or Judy Abbott. Judy is an orphan who is given the opportunity to  go to college by an anonymous benefactor. Her story is played out through the letters she writes to this benefactor.

The one thing in the book that left a lasting impression on me was the character of Judy. Jean Webster starts off with a rather stock character of 'the poor orphan' but turns her into a fun and feisty young girl with definite opinions of her own. Judy has a sense of humor despite the very humorless life she led in the orphanage. Though she is absolutely grateful to Daddy-long-legs for the life he is giving her, she does put up a fight when she thinks he is being unfair. 


The contents of her letters, the locations they are set in and even the story that unfolds is pleasant but nothing earth-shattering. Its the character of Judy that really elevates this book and stays with you long after you've forgotten everything else about it.