The Making of Mollie Anna Carey
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The Making of Mollie ISBN 978-1-84717-847-3 eBook ISBN 978-1-84717-903-6 Anna Carey Teaching Guide By Aisling Hamill SUMMARY AND THEMES Home rule Gertie and Grace. Nora and Daisy are held Religion in Mollie’s highest esteem. Gertie and Grace The Making of Mollie is an epistolary novel, are best avoided, in Mollie’s opinion. Mollie a collection of letters, composed by Mollie Opportunities for integration lie in the signs off, urging Frances to respond with tales to her friend Frances. These letters prove to subject areas of: History, SPHE, Geography, of her far more exotic life in England. be an invaluable primary source of historical Art and Music. Several examples may be information for the reader as well as found in the teaching guide below. 5th April 1912 providing in-depth information on Mollie’s Mollie’s second missive takes a more character and her thoughts and feelings on Unit 1 intriguing turn. Phyllis, her elder sister is those around her. The conversation is one- Pages 9–88 up to something odd. Phyllis is inclined to sided as we never read Frances’s responses; involve herself in unusual activities but her however through Mollie’s descriptive and SUMMARY behaviour of late has added a much welcome diary style entries we form a solid impression dash of drama and intrigue to Mollie’s days. 25th March 1912 of her pen pal’s personality. Mollie’s suspicions were raised by snatches We meet Mollie at a critical point in her life. The Making of Mollie opens with a letter of Phyllis’s whispered conversations with the She is beginning to look outside herself and written from the perspective of the family maid, Maggie. Further clues lay in the reflect on her place as a young woman in protagonist herself, Mollie. We learn about unsightly large hat that Phyllis began to wear, society. Mollie sees the small injustices that her home life, her relatives and their unique later found by Mollie on top of a wardrobe she encounters at the hands of men and ‘Carberry’ clan dynamic. Mollie is the covered in flour and cabbage leaves. The society in general in 1912 and yearns for second youngest child in a family of four most condemning piece of evidence came change and equality. Mollie’s sister Phyllis children. She has an elder sister Phyllis, when Mollie spied Phyllis climbing out the is an essential source of information and who is almost of college-going age. Harry, window and sneaking into the lane behind inspiration to Mollie as she uncovers her her brother, is two years Mollie’s senior. To the house. These are not the actions of a elder siblings participation in the growing Mollie’s annoyance, Harry often behaves well-bred innocent young lady and Mollie suffragette movement. As Mollie uncovers as if he were her much older, much wiser can’t decide what her sister could be up hard truths her social conscience heightens, superior in every single way. Mollie’s lengthy to. Mollie shares theories of a secret love and the reader experiences these firsts letter to her dear friend Frances details the affair, or maybe Phyllis is a revolutionary or alongside her, while being entertained by many ways that Harry manages to get under a criminal. She can’t quite put her finger on the sharp, funny style of the narrative. her skin over the course of a few days. Mollie it yet, but what she is sure of is that Maggie finds it particularly frustrating that Harry, as the maid and Phyllis’s friend Kathleen are The Making of Mollie has cross-curricular a boy, is allowed to do whatever he pleases, somehow involved. application due to the diversity of themes, whereas she, as a young girl, must ask her including: 19th April 1912 parents’ leave for any activity outside the Human rights home. Mollie writes to her fellow book-worm buddy Women’s rights once more, describing Phyllis’s increasingly Mollie’s younger sister Julia is twelve and Equality mysterious movements about the house and very much the baby of the house. Together Family town. She reveals a serious break-through in the three females complete the fiddly odd- Loyalty her amateur sleuthing activities; Phyllis has job of darning clothes that are beginning to Discrimination been receiving secret packages. Furthermore show signs of wear and tear. Mollie’s days Courage Phyllis has been sneaking said packages to are ‘incredibly dull’. She tells us about the Friendship Maggie the family’s maid. Through a little various ways that her siblings drive her mad: Love additional spying and a growing sense of Harry with his haughty, supercilious manner Social status guilt, Mollie has discovered that the package and Julia with her fervent religiosity. Secrecy contains pamphlets. Could it be that Phyllis Conflict Mollie writes about the local convent school and Maggie truly are revolutionaries? Even Social Change that she attends. The main players in her Nora, who is not taken to flights of fancy, Education school-yard social circle are Nora, Daisy, admits that it sounds quite suspicious. The Making of Mollie 1 Teaching Guide 1st May 1912 Mollie’s spare time is spent helping out 2. Frank’s Diary with household chores, tending to her Mollie writes a letter so lengthy that she Compose a diary entry for Frank’s thoughts homework and reading. Do you think she worries it will be more of a package to post, and impressions following his conversation is content and fulfilled by her life? Justify with prices to match. A lot has happened in with Mollie and daring recapture of the your reasoning by referring to the text. If recent days and she shares her adventures Menace. in earnest with her pen pal Frances. Mollie’s you were living as a child in 1912 how sleuthing has caught up with her and she has would you spend your free time? Bear in 3. Fashion in 1912 mind the technological differences and fallen foul of Phyllis. She followed Phyllis social constraints of those times. Examine the fashions of 1912 in Ireland to Custom House Quay, where all was using the Google images tool. Remember revealed by a lady called Mrs Joyce who 5th April 1912 that fabrics at the time would have been spoke to the crowds from atop a box. Mrs Based on Mollie’s deductions to date, locally sourced and hard wearing. Design Joyce is campaigning for Votes for Women what do you think Phyllis is up to? How an outfit that an IWFL supporter might wear and Phyllis is supporting the cause by selling are Kathleen and Maggie involved? to a rally. Remember skirt lengths and cuts magazines of the same name. Phyllis is a Maggie, as a house maid has fewer were conservative at the time. Try and be suffragette! Mollie becomes so absorbed in freedoms than the Carberry girls. Do you mindful of what was socially acceptable for Mrs Joyce’s speech that she is spotted quite think she is helping Phyllis by choice? women to wear during 1912. easily by Phyllis as the crowd begins to part. If Phyllis and Maggie were caught Phyllis’s temper lessens during the walk behaving in an unseemly manner, do 4. Charter of Women’s Rights home and she begins to explain how she you think the consequences would be Using the experiences of Mollie as found herself working with the suffragette the same for them both? What might the inspiration, draft a charter of five basic rights movement, although she doesn’t like to call consequences be? that the women of Ireland in 1912 should it that! The movement has struck a chord 19th April 1912 receive. Compare your charter with the with Mollie and she comes to realise that Maggie continues to invade Phyllis’ Universal Charter of Human Rights of 1948. she agrees that women should be able to privacy as she attempts to discover what Are there any similarities? Could you make do whatever men do. Mollie thinks of the her sister is up to. Do you think Mollie is further improvements to the charter based many small injustices she and her sister have justified in her actions? Why? on how society is now? Or on how you think experienced because society (and her sibling Mollie discovers that Phyllis is in society should be? Harry) see them as inferior to men. Phyllis possession of pamphlets. What role do had to fight for the right to go to university; you think Phyllis plays in their production Unit 2 Mollie had to bicker to get her chosen cut or distribution? Explain your answer by of chicken; and even riding a bicycle is a referencing the text. Pages 89–192 frowned-upon form of transport for women 1st May 1912 and girls of the day. On the other hand, men SUMMARY Mollie has discovered that Phyllis is active and boys can do all of the above, and more in the fight for women’s votes. Why do 13th May 1912 still, without the censure and disapproval of you think Phyllis has hidden her activities Mollie has never taken an interest in politics those around them. Mollie returns to school from the family? How do you think her before, ‘Home Rule’ always seemed to be for ready to find out more and enlighten her parents would react if they found out? adults, but the Suffragette movement feels chum Nora to the cause. Do you think that Phyllis’s cause is a connected to her daily life experiences.