Olive

Description

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik is a well-known English poet and novelist. She has captured the interest of readers through her passionate yet simplistic stories which ask questions about discrimination, gender, deformities and other inequalities of society. Her novel, “Olive”, published in 1850, is a great example of a believable story about someone who is not born normal, but manages to overcome all the difficulties of life caused by her deformity.

The story’s main character is Olive. Born with a deformity of the spine, she is constantly told that she will never find love and that society will never accept her. Her parents reject her, and their disgust is only improved to the level of tolerance, a sad thing to happen to a young girl.

Fortunately for Olive, the house has a nursemaid which will do everything in her power to raise the little girl. She is passionate and overprotective and makes sure Olive grows without realizing that she is not normal and that her deformity is an impediment to entering society. When the nursemaid dies, Olive is forced to face the reality of her condition. However, she would not give up, and fight her way to find a place in society not only as a painter, but as a wife as well.

Asking strong questions about family, its role, race and discrimination, Craik’s novel depict Olive’s ordeals as well as makes the reader reflect upon the ugliness of the world as well as hope. Olive will eventually become an accomplished artist, and she will also find true love in the most unlikely person, despite being told that she would never find someone to love her.

“Olive” is a sincere story about life’s hardships, as well as a brave woman’s struggle to fight her way in society despite a horrendous deformity.
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