Analyse af Penelope Livelys novelle 'Clara's Day'

This is a short story named “Clara’s day” written by Penelope Lively. The story is about a girl named Clara Tilling who is 15 and a half years old. One day at school assembly she decides to take off all of her clothes. She goes past the headmistress lectern, where The Head hesitates for a moment, and then begins to read out again. Her naked walk stops when she reach her own classroom where she puts a science overall at her naked body.

Afterward she talks with The Head about the incident. The Head decides to write a letter to Clara's mother.

After the episode Clara react like nothing ever had happened. But a few days later her parents receive the letter from Clara's school.

But the mother do not become angry or sad, she begins to laugh, and then describe Clara's youth to her boyfriend. She explains, to her boyfriend Stan that Clara used to be a prude, and that she is modest. In the end of the story, when the mother and Stan are driving towards their work, Clara sits at the table, where she begins to cry.

This is a remarkable family. Clara's parents are divorced and she lives with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Stan. The mother and Stan do not act like grown ups, or like normal parents would do, when their daughter decides to take of all her clothes in front of the entire school. They just make fun of her and respond in an impolite way. They only think it’s funny and they do not care about her or wants to hear the reason why. They are very inattentive.