Mildred Pierce Summary, Character Analysis, and Opinion :: essays research papers

SummaryMildred Pierce, by James M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World state of war II times, also in California. The main character, Mildred Pierce, is a very agreeable housewife of 29, raising two daughters, Ray and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a concomitant obsession with Mildred. She constantly slaves away by means ofout the novel to do any(prenominal) she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and trickery Veda inflicts upon Mildred. afterwards a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to grant her pride and become a waitress in order to maintenance her family. If Veda were ever to find out, she would be appalled a constantly happen theme throughout this story is Vedas pride and arrogance, and her condemnation of jobs she deems to be menial. Mildreds main goal is to nurture Vedas musical talents, and manages to conduct for expensive music lessons fro m her meager salaries as a waitress and pie baker. However, Mildreds luck is currently to change, as she takes up with an attorney and former provide of Bert, Wally. Mildred is able to use Wallys business and real estate savvy to build a restaurant out of a deserted stupefy home, and from there create a thriving chain of three diet businesses. After becoming bored with Wally, however, Mildred craves a relationship with another man, a prestigious local man named Monty. Veda highly approves of her mothers choice, as this makes her feel as if she too were more prestigious and affluent, despite having misgivings around her mother still being so low as to chip in an average, pedestrian job. All seems to be going well even through Vedas constant demands and tantrums, she still gets everything she wants, and Mildred and Monty are happy. Monty, however, falls on heavy times with the coming of the Great Depression, and he constantly mooches off of Mildreds affluence, making it a stru ggle for Mildred to cater to Vedas every whim. Mildred soon dumps Monty to focus on making Veda a musical prognostication this fails, however, when Veda is told that her piano is not up to par from a local noteworthy music teacher. After Veda recovers from this shock, she explores the opportunities offered by an acting career, and begins to spin more webs of deception and selfishness. After Veda forces money out of a local rich family, prevarication and claiming their son got her pregnant, Mildred and Veda have a major argument, and Veda disowns her mother.