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

SummaryMildred Pierce, by crowd together M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World War II times, also in California. The principal(prenominal) character, Mildred Pierce, is a very attractive housewife of 29, raising two daughters, tool and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a comparisonticular obsession with Mildred. She unendingly slaves away passim the novel to do whatever she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and deception Veda inflicts upon Mildred. After a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to sacrifice her pride and become a await in order to support her family. If Veda were ever to find let on, she would be scandalise a constantly recurring theme throughout this story is Vedas pride and arrogance, and her condemnation of jobs she deems to be menial. Mildreds main goal is to grow Vedas musical talents, and manages to pay for expensive music lessons from her meager salaries as a waitress and pie baker. However, Mildreds luck is soon to change, as she takes up with an attorney and former partner of Bert, Wally. Mildred is able to use Wallys line of merchandise and real estate savvy to build a restaurant out of a deserted model home, and from there create a well-to-do chain of three food businesses. After becoming bored with Wally, however, Mildred craves a relationship with another man, a prestigious local man named Monty. Veda passing approves of her mothers choice, as this makes her feel as if she too were to a greater extent prestigious and affluent, despite having misgivings about her mother still being so low as to have an average, pedestrian job. All seems to be going away well even through Vedas constant demands and tantrums, she still gets everything she wants, and Mildred and Monty are happy. Monty, however, falls on hard times with the coming of the Great Depression, and he constantly mooches off of Mildreds afflu ence, devising it a struggle for Mildred to allow for to Vedas every whim. Mildred soon dumps Monty to focus on making Veda a musical prodigy this fails, however, when Veda is told that her piano is not up to par from a local famous music teacher. After Veda recovers from this shock, she explores the opportunities offered by an performing career, and begins to spin more webs of deception and selfishness. After Veda forces money out of a local rich family, lying and claiming their son got her pregnant, Mildred and Veda have a major argument, and Veda disowns her mother.