blog post

In the book "Olivia" by V.C Andrews, the main character 'Olivia' has spent most of her life dealing with the actions of her immature sister, Belinda. Sadly so, Olivia's actions are often taken for granted since Belinda is the "favorite" of the family, irresponsible and flighty Belinda proves to be the downfall of her family's reputation. I think the main idea for this book is, ignorance isn't always bliss, with Belinda's family always ignoring her selfish ways, Belinda grows up expecting everything to be given to her for free. Olivia has always known she was destined with the role to keep her younger sister in check, even her father (her biggest role model) told her himself to "watch out for Belinda." She now sees this job get increasingly more difficult as Belinda is on the verge of adulthood. Then, after one night Belinda gives birth to a stillborn child, and much to Olivia's disbelief, her family throws this situation under the rug and doesn't bother finding the illegitimate father of Belinda's child. Olivia's disgust and shock at Belinda's actions and her family's action towards this problem make her realize how ignorant her family really is. Further in the book, Belinda's actions only get worse, she gets sent to a boarding school for women growing up and breaks a number of school rules in order to leave. Afterwards, her father gets her an internship at his company and Belinda flirts with nearly every man in the office and does all of her jobs wrong. Throughout the book, the reader is constantly waiting for Belinda to be brought back to reality by Olivia or her family because of how ridiculous her behavior is for a grown woman, however the reader is very disappointed when Belinda's actions are constantly ignored by her family and even as her mother and father go to the grave, still never chastising her once for her behavior. Her sister is the only one left to take care of once again, pregnant Belinda after she slept with a married man, afterwards she is sent to a mental institution because Olivia can't raise a family, her fathers company and deal with Belinda's increasingly stupid behavior. This book is a good example of what benign neglect and ignorance does to an already irresponsible person. Other lessons in this book are, you cannot help everyone, Olivia was a well put together person whom didn't have time to scold her sister, her parents put unneeded pressure on her to take care of her sister whilst it was their job.