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Olive Kitteridge Novel by Elizabeth Strout Analysis

Olive Kitteridge in the novel Olive Kitteridge is the main character and in this regard has the novel been named after her. The author of the novel Elizabeth Stout features the life of Olive Kitteridge in the different thirteen chapters of the novel. The character of Olive Kitteridge cannot be described in one particular form because the author paints Olive as a person of changing characteristics and personalities. At the beginning of the novel, Olive is captured as a rude, harsh, and a person who does not pay attention to other people's feelings. In other chapters, she is featured as a person who has been through a lot of life challenges hence justifying her rude behavior and even sometimes she reflects and realizes her mistakes and calm down. As the novel approaches the end, the personality of Olive changes for better something that can be said it is like she is growing in terms of personality from behaviors of a young person to an old mature lady. As described by the author, there are many ways that Olive demonstrates a change in her character and various reasons triggers the change. This essay shall hence seek to analyze the character of Olive Kitteridge as featured in the novel by Elizabeth Stout. The character analysis shall focus elaborating why and why Olive changes basis the analysis on three different areas; her perspective on her son, how she treats her husband Henry, and how she sees the world in general.

The author of the book demonstrates the various ways and reasons that make Olive to change from time to time. Starting with her son; Olive is an extremely controlling and demanding woman that is never satisfied. She does not seem to have a way to get pleased or please people including her son (Stout, 5).(The quote format not same as I send to u ) According to the novel, Olive is bitter about life in general and extends the hate and bitterness towards her son who is young and in a stage where motherly love is important. As a mother, she grants no attention and importance to the wellbeing of her son something that demonstrated her as bad, arrogant, and ignorant mother. The attitude and behavior of Olive can be said to have been triggered by life frustrations that she had experienced and the fact that she pretended to be strong only killed her emotions (Stout, 24). (The quote format not same as I send to u ) However, as time goes by she gradually starts to demonstrate motherly love towards her son though she does not outwardly express it. She starts to feel concern about the welfare and future of her son. For instance, she remembers that the house they live in was built strong so that her son could have a good home in the future.

Her attitude towards her son changes as the novel progresses to chapter four “Security” and her son is now at a stage where he has to get married. As a mother, Olive is deeply concerned by the type of woman that her son will get married to because her desire is for her son to get married to a good wife. She bears a perception that her son needs to be in good company that will make his life better and happier than her. As her son leaves with his wife to California, Olive reacts properly as she realizes her son’s wife is in charge of her son and that she could only offer her support. This is an indication that as she is growing older, she is connecting more with the son triggering her changes towards his welfare (Stout, 28). (The quote format not same as I send to u ) Olive's perception towards her son changes as she starts to see and feel that her son has grown to become a mature man who is ready to become independent. The burden of bringing up her son has eased from her shoulders something that makes her feels at eases and develops a positive attitude. Additionally, her son getting married poses a great threat to Olive as she feels that his attention will be divided between her and the wife. Olive hence starts to perceive her son as somebody important to her and she cannot lose hence acting in a way that would make the bond stronger and reliable.

From the first chapter(name of the chapter) of the book to the last, Olive changes in the way she treats her husband Henry Kitteridge. In the first chapters of the novel, Olive treats her husband badly and she does not act as she needs him. She is controlling her husband and feels that all attention and care from her husband should be directed to her and not somebody else. For instance, when Henry Kitteridge hires Denise Thibodeau to offer him assistance in the pharmacy store, Olive reacts negatively towards the fact that her husband has hired a young and beautiful girl (Stout 5). (The quote format not same as I send to u ) She feels that her husband did not make the right decision and does everything to make her husband feel bad about his actions. She states “Looks just like a mouse (Stout, 6)” (The quote format not same as I send to u ) which is a direct way of demeaning her husband instead of supporting and encouraging her husband. At this stage of the novel, the maltreatment that Olive does upon her husband can be said to be as a result of the things going on in her life. To start with, Olive is frustrated with the poor life that they have lived and her husband in a retiree. Instead of her husband showing her care and concern, he expresses overprotective care and attention towards Denise something that triggers bitter feelings in her making her act harshly.

As the novel progresses to middle chapters, Olives bad treatment towards her husband does not ease but it is rather heightened. She even starts comparing her husband with her long-term secret love. For instance, when Henry tries to advise his son and says “Perhaps you need to help out more around the house,” In reply, Olive outburst towards her husband saying “How dare you to tell him what to do? You don't even pay enough attention to know what he’s going through in social studies class!” Olive shouted this at him while Christopher remained silent, a smirk on his face. “Why, Jim O’Casey is more sympathetic to the kid than you are” (Stout, 11). (The quote format not same as I send to u , and don’t be ITALIC) The reaction can be said to have been triggered by emotional confusion.

In the third chapter(NAME OF CHAPTER) of the book, Olive also treats Henry badly after the attack at the clinic and Henry is attacked by a stroke. Despite all people confirming that Henry is not aware of what is happening around his, Olive insists that he is pretending which is an indication that she does not care about her husband even in sickness. However, towards the end of the novel, Olive changes tremendously in the way she treats her husband. The reason is that her husband is aging and the stroke attacks forced her to take care of him hence starting to bring back the connection between the two( Letort, (87). (The quote format not same as I send to u ) Olives start to realize that the two had been on different roads and moving on with the same attitude would make their paths part the more something that Olive does not want since she only has Henry now.

Olive changes are also evident in the way she sees life. The reason is that at the beginning of the book, Olive has a negative perception of the world where chapter four “Little Burst” claims that Olive perceive and thought of the world as “little bursts and big bursts”. According to Olive, little bursts are things like being a kind waitress who understand how every client’s coffee should be, a friendly clerk, or even a Bradlee (Stout 33) (The quote format not same as I send to u ). On the other hand, big bursts are things like marriages and having children among other engagements and involvements that holds unusual and dangerous things. The wrong and negative perception about the world made Olive to always grant unnecessary issues much importance and denying vital things less important. For instance, she did not see treating people right through the use of polite and calm language as good because she perceived it as a little burst. However, she granted her son's marriage ample attention and she eventually felt the difference. The latter is in the sense that she realized the small things in life are what that matters, for instance, the social relationship that one keeps with other people and not the big things (Stout, 51). (The quote format not same as I send to u ) She realized that big things happen once and they are forgotten for instance having children and getting married while as small things last forever and one can depend on small things in the world for survival something that big things cannot offer. From this realization, Olive starts changing her perception and views of the world something that makes her quiet and humble than it was the case at the beginning of the novel.

Through the different stories narrated by the author in the novel, the character of Olive has changed from worse to better. The change can be said to have been triggered by life experience she has faced making her correct her errors. The novel starts by portraying Olive as a harsh and judgmental person who perceives her son badly and treats her husband with disrespect. She is also a person who has a queer way of seeing the world something that makes her make wrong decisions that end up affecting her negatively. According to Letort, (87); (The quote format not same as I send to u ) life is the best teacher and from her experiences and encounters, she gets to learn and also she grows old, she embraces better values and virtues which gradually make her change. By the end of the novel, she is silent and her names only get mentioned on a few times as compared to the beginning of the book something that demonstrates total change on Olive Kitteridge. Hence, her son, husband, and the world can be said to have played a major role in shaping Olive from a bad to a good character.

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Works Cited:

Letort, Delphine. "Age and Gender in the Miniseries Adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge." Adaptation 9.1 (2015): 86-97.

Stout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge. New York: Random House, 2008.