Growing Up

Lucy’s image of the “good woman” reflects Victorian values: a woman’s role is to save men from their brutish and lazy natures. How does Baker’s definition of what makes a woman “good” change from the beginning to the end of the book?

In the book’s final paragraph, Baker asks his mother if she remembers Russell and Mimi, referring to himself and his wife. He writes, “She glared at me the way I had so often seen her glare at a dolt. ‘Never heard of them,’ she said, and fell asleep” (240). Discuss how Lucy’s senility ties into Baker’s motivation to write his memoir.

What does Baker mean when he says Harold “was not a liar but a teller of stories and a romantic,” and how does it influence Baker’s beliefs about storytelling (127)?