WHAT HAPPEN TO LULU
This poem is about the question of how the child can react, when he has been told nothing is the matter, when clearly it is. Ironically the mother does not know what to do, as the final stanza makes clear.
Place
· Probably in England as the word "money-box" is a typical British word.
-Lulu's room
-The fireplace
Time
-In the past
Themes
1. The end of childhood and the loss of innocence
Lulu is probably a young teenager.
She ran away based on the note that her mother crumpled.
She took her savings "money-box" to start a new life with a man who drove her off in a "engine roar".
She left her childhood behind.
2. Parent-child relationship
The mother and Lulu relationship could have been a tense and strained one.
Lulu is a rebellious teenager.
She dislikes her mother's restrictions on her freedom and emerging interest in the opposite sex.
She keeps secrets from her mother.
The mother and narrator relationship is less dramatic.
The narrator is obedient and respectful to the mother.
The narrator loves the mother very much and observe her pain and distress.
3. Grief and love
The mother is grieving over the loss of her child, Lulu.
The mother clearly loves Lulu.
The narrator loves the sister as she called her by pet name "Lu".
The narrator is worried about the sudden disappearance of the elder sister
This poem is about the question of how the child can react, when he has been told nothing is the matter, when clearly it is. Ironically the mother does not know what to do, as the final stanza makes clear.
Place
· Probably in England as the word "money-box" is a typical British word.
-Lulu's room
-The fireplace
Time
-In the past
Themes
1. The end of childhood and the loss of innocence
Lulu is probably a young teenager.
She ran away based on the note that her mother crumpled.
She took her savings "money-box" to start a new life with a man who drove her off in a "engine roar".
She left her childhood behind.
2. Parent-child relationship
The mother and Lulu relationship could have been a tense and strained one.
Lulu is a rebellious teenager.
She dislikes her mother's restrictions on her freedom and emerging interest in the opposite sex.
She keeps secrets from her mother.
The mother and narrator relationship is less dramatic.
The narrator is obedient and respectful to the mother.
The narrator loves the mother very much and observe her pain and distress.
3. Grief and love
The mother is grieving over the loss of her child, Lulu.
The mother clearly loves Lulu.
The narrator loves the sister as she called her by pet name "Lu".
The narrator is worried about the sudden disappearance of the elder sister