RECREO LITERARIO - THE GROWING OF ADRIAN MOLE

THE GROWING OF ADRIAN MOLE

Oral exhibition by Lidia Haba García y Lorena Martínez Pérez

The growing pains of Adrian Mole

01 – April 4^th 1982 – April 14^th

Adrian Mole was making a model airplane when he decided to do an experiment: to sniff the glue. Adrian’s nose was swollen because he was allergic to the glue.

Pandora was Adrian’s girlfriend.

Adrian’s mother was depressed and she didn’t do normal things. Adrian and his father had a conversation about love. George Mole told him that when they were young his mother had beautiful girls and for that reason he fell in love with her. Adrian was surprised because he fell in love with Pandora because of her intelligence.

03 – April 26^th – Mat 15^th

One day he met Doreen Slater (he called her “Stick Insect”). She was his father’s girlfriend when George was separated from Adrian’s mother. Doreen was very fat in that moment.

Adrian walked near Pandora’s house and there was a fancy dress party. He was very sad because he still loved her but it seemed that she was happy without him.

04 – May 17^th – June 1^st

His parents asked him if he would want a brother o a sister, but Adrian said no. then, his parents told him that she was pregnant.

One night he couldn’t sleep and went for a walk. He saw Pandora’s house and he started to cry. Adrian didn’t know anything about her and he missed Pandora so much. Then, he went to visit Bert and Queenie, and old marriage and friends of Adrian. Some days he went to their house to see them and help them. But they were still sleeping, so he returned to his house.

05 – June 7^th – June 30^th

Doreen Slater (Stick Insect) was pregnant too. Adrian thought about who could be the father and he wished that he wasn’t his father.

Adrian and his parents were talking about their holidays. His father said that it was their last holidays because it could be difficult to travel with the baby the next year.

Adrian understood that Pandora would never return with him. His friend Nigel organized a blind date for Adrian with Sharon Botts.

06 – July 2^nd – July 15^th

Bert Baxter called Adrian very nervous. Queenie didn’t fell well. His parents went with him to Baxter’s house and called an ambulance. Queenie had a stroke and she would be some days at the hospital. Adrian went to Bert’s house wvery day and helped him with housework.

Some day Pandora went to see Bert because Adrian told her what happened. Pandora saw Adrian ironed. He looked like a responsible boy.

07 – July 16^th – July 24^th

Stick Insect called to George Mole one day. Adrian saw them walking together arm in arm. He thought that it was good that his father helped her, but she was pregnant and people could think that Mr. Mole was the baby’s father.

08 – July 26^th – August 4^th

The Mole came to Pandora’s house to tell her and her parents the things that they would have to do in Bert’s house while they were on holidays. Pandora wouldn’t go with Adrian because her father didn’t want to pay the travel cost and Pandora didn’t have any money for her own. Adrian would be alone with his family.

Mrs. Mole was very proud of her growing bump. When someone came to visit them, she showed her bump. Adrian couldn’t see that so he left the room and she went to his bedroom.

09 – August 10^th – August 18^th

George Mole received a call when they continued in Skegness. Stick Insect had his baby and Mr. Mole was the father. The next day he went to the hospital to see his son, called Brett.

Pauline Mole didn’t allow George Mole to return home, so he, Stick Insect, her first son Maxwell and the baby had to go to grandmother’s house.

10 – August 20^th – September 3^rd

Mrs. Mole was depressed and she didn’t do the housework. Adrian started to cook. They went to the bank to borrow some money.

Pandora and her family went out. Adrian offered to feed the cat and to keep their house.

11 – September 4^th – September 15^th

Adrian guarded Pandora’s house whilst she and her family was out.

His mother’s her new boyfriend (Adrian called him Horrible Lucas).

12 – September 17^th – September 29^th

Adrian went to see Queenie at the hospital.

14 – October 14^th – October 29^th

Adrian went to see his brother Brett. He noticed that his grandmother and Stick Insect wasn’t getting on well, and his father had lost his job.

His mother had the baby soon, but she was very stressed because they didn’t had money to prepare a baby’s room.

15 – October 31^st – November 12^th

One day, Adrian went to home after the high school and saw a note from his mother saying she was at hospital. He went immediately. It was a girl.

Mr. Mole phoned to know the details of the birth; he wasn’t well with his new family and he wanted to return with Adrian and his mother.

16 – November 13^th – November 23^rd

Adrian and Pandora went to visit Mrs. Mole and the baby at hospital.

The next day, Pauline Mole returned to home with George Mole.

His sister was called Rosie Germanie Mole.

Horrible Lucas phoned one night. Adrian only could hear that he was going to have a blood test.

18 – December 7^th – December 21^st

Queenie died one night when she was sleeping. Everyone was very sad but it was necessary start with the funeral preparation. Bert didn’t have money for a nice funeral, so Adrian phoned the Baxter’s friend to get them to donate money. After the funeral, they went to Pandora’s house.

19 – December 22^nd – December 27^th

At night, he went with Pandora to the Youth Club’s party. He danced with Pandora.

20 – December 28^th – January 5^th 1983

The Adrian’s purposes for the New Year were to study more for his exams, not to think about sex during school hours, to be friend of Bert’s dog and to try to get his parents together.

After that day, Mr. and Mrs. Mole negotiated about to come back together. But sometimes they got angry and Adrian had to be the intermediary.

21 – January 8^th – January 23^rd

Mr. and Mrs. Mole had a trial period. They lived together for a month according to new rules. If it wasn’t well, they would divorce.

Lucas phoned to say that Rosie was his daughter.

22 – January 25^th – February 8^th

Horrible Lucas came to their house demanding to see Rosie. Mrs. Mole said that George Mole was the father. Adrian discovered that his parents had affairs the last year and it made that he had two new brothers: Brett and Rosie. Lucas said that he would take them to court if they didn’t allow seeing Rosie. Adrian was very sad, he couldn’t concentrate and he cried sometimes.

The trial period finished but Mr. and Mrs. Mole wanted to extend it. They talked about to buy a new house.

24 – February 21^st – March 4^th

Adrian was another member of the Barry’s gang. They used to shout, knock over the rubbish bins and go to the rubbish tip to take some unbroken furniture.

Pandora sent him a note where she said that their relationship had finished, because she didn’t like his new friends.

CHARACTERS

1.       ADRIAN MOLE

-          The protagonist if the series.

-          Good and caring person.

-          He is generally honest and always tries to do the right thing, sometimes leaving him open to manipulation by the less scrupulous.

-          He is an average man with many normal human shortcomings, but he has a very good heart and deals with life’s challenges in a manner sometimes comic, always honest. He has a timeless appeal to the everyman sentiment in all reader.

2.       PANDORA BRAITHWAITE

-          She was Adrian’s Mole first girlfriend and the love of his life.

-          She is academically brilliant and a gifted linguist later becoming a Member of Parliament and junior minister in Tony Blair’s New Labour Government.

-          She is he only daughter of Ivan Braithwaite and Tania Braithwaite.

3.       BERT BAXTER

-          He is an old-age pensioner befriended by Adrian Mole.

-          He first appears in the book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

4.       PAULINE MOLE

-          She is Adrian Mole’s mother.

-          She has a prominent character throughout the series.

-          She is warm-hearted and devoted to her children, but extremely temperamental.

-          The love of her live, whom she has married three times, is George Mole.

5.       GEORGE MOLE

-          He is father of Adrian Mole.

-          He has divorced and remarried Pauline Mole more than once.

-          He used to sell electric storage heaters, but he was made redundant about the same time Pauline Mole ran off with Mr. Lucas; during this time he dated Doreen Slater.

6.       NIGEL HETHERINGTON

-          He is Adrian Mole’s best friend since childhood.

-          They attend the same high school and youth club, share various musical and literary tastes, and even date the same girl, Pandora, in the course of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

-          Nigel’s family is barely described, though his father and mother are referred to as a maniac and a midget, respectively.

7.       ROSIE MOLE

-          She is much younger sister of Adrian Mole and grows up to be his total opposite, although they do share quite a close relationship.

-          By the age of 15, in Adrian Mole. The Cappuccino Years, she has become a foulmouthed rebellious vixen, modeling her appearance on Spice Girl Emma Bunton, and she wears very short miniskirts.

-          She becomes pregnant by a boyfriend named Aaron Michelthwaite, a fact she discloses only to Adrian, and orders a realistic baby-simulator doll to prepare herself for motherhood – although she later chooses to have an abortion.

8.       IVAN BRAITHWAITE

-          Father of Pandora Braithwaite and ex-husband of Tania Braithwaite.

-          Ivan worked as a dairy supervisor, develops a somewhat bohemian outlook during his middle age, and is determined to connect with working class culture despite his own relative affluence.

-          He dies on his honeymoon with Pauline Mole by drowning.