Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff Essay

Blog Post Essay

I used to sleep with my bedroom door open and the adjacent hallway light on. Back then in childhood, my fears only consisted of scary monsters that lived in darkness and would only disappear if I ran into the hallway of light. Nowadays, I have to turn the hallway light off before I go to bed to avoid ridicule for keeping such childish routines. It’s like there’s a train of maturity separating us from the comfort and sanctity of our childhood, and if our departure too early or too late, it’s as if you’ll miss out on important life experiences. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff tells the story of LaVaughn, a fourteen year old who takes a babysitting job for Jolly, a teenage mother of two, struggling to get by. The characters throughout the book show how society’s ‘one size fits all’ standard of growing up is actually not suitable for everybody.

 To begin, society’s standard suggests we all grow up around the same point in our lives. In Make Lemonade, the main characters’, LaVaughn and Jolly, lives are incapable of meeting this standard. For forever, LaVaughn’s mother has stressed saving up for college and the importance of homework as her ticket to a better life. In the text it states, “Homework is a completely required thing like a vaccination. You meet my mom you’ll see why,” (4). On the other hand, society would say parents who take close notice to their child’s education, are pushing them to hard. But not all of us have the luxury having of a childhood where we can roam free knowing we’ll have a secure future, some like LaVaughn have to prepare ahead of time no matter what society has to say about it. In addition, society would disapprove teen moms, saying they’re too young. But that not the case for all of them. Jolly came from a background of poverty and a lack of education. Becoming a mother at seventeen was the best thing to ever happen to her. For example, she enrolled in a Moms Up Program to finish high school. Also, Jolly hired LaVaughn, a babysitter so young, yet her care giving skills were far better than Jolly’s. Jolly even admitted to saying to her, “I’m not good enough for you, go on home!” (132). Sometimes I think about how many judgments I encounter in a day, a week, and month. I think about out of all of those judgments, most are not even valid. This just goes to show how easy it for society or someone on the outer edge of your life to come in and criticize your most personal and intimate life choices.

The development of the characters in Make Lemonade changed my view of maturity from the idea of it happening in a simple straight line. In reality, there’s no train that can dictate when you grow up, it just happens, in the messiest most complex way possible. Imagining a world where everyone matured in the same way would be like watching how processed food is made in a factory. How you mature as an individual is completely unique to you.