FREE ESSAY ON WHITE OLEANDER

WHITE OLEANDER

White Oleander, a dramatic fiction by Janet Fitch, was published by Little, Brown and
Company in Boston. The story is about a mother and daughter, Ingred and Astrid have a
very unusual relationship. Ingred loves her daughter but never asks her what she thinks
so therefore doesn't know her daughter too well. Such as she does not know of her
daughter's yearning for a father. 
Ingred makes it very clear that she will not allow herself to get close to a man. She is
a very brilliant, beautiful poet, who is adored by a man named Barry Kolker. He goes to
all of her readings, and asks her out each time. One of the times Barry invites her to go
to the Gamelan, an orchestra. Loving the Gamelan, she accepts. Her and Astrid join Barry,
and they begin talking more. They start going out more, but each time she makes and
stands by regulations, such as he will invite her to eat after an event where they had
not planned on eating and she will refuse, because she doesn't like to get attached to
men, and doesn't want to spend anymore time than she had already allotted. 
All of a sudden, her rules start diminishing. One time, there was a knock at her door,
and it was Barry. She thought to herself, 'how dare he just come without an invitation?'.
When she opened the door (a knife in her hand), he had a bottle of wine, and bag of
something that smelled good. To Astrid's surprise she did something least expected. She
invited him in. One night Barry said he would be over to her house at 9 and never showed.
So the next day, Ingred showed up unannounced at Barry's and she went inside and they
made love. Immediately after, he told Ingred she had to leave because he had a date
coming. She wanted to seek revenge. She started showing up at every place he was at. She
broke into his house. He tried to go to her house and make her stop the nonsense. He
tried forcing his way in her house, and she stabbed him in the hand. He left, and the
next day she went to his house, where she found he had changed the locks. She broke in
and placed white oleanders in his milk, oyster sauce and cottage cheese, and one in his
toothpaste. She made an arrangement of white oleanders on his table, and scattered blooms
on his bed. A police officer came to Ingred's house, and told her that Barry is accusing
her of breaking and entering, and trying to poison him. She calmly stated that Barry is
angry with her. She broke up with him and that he couldn't get over her. Ingred and
Astrid took trip to Tijuana and Ingred bought a bottle of medicine called, DMSO, which
helps drugs absorb through your skin (DMSO helps nicotine patches work), and uses that to
poison him. He dies. Ingred is eventually placed in jail, leaving Astrid to jump from
foster home to foster home. 
Her first foster home is with a mother named Star. Star is a busty, and leggy, ex-coke
addict turned Christian. Star has a boyfriend named Ray, and Astrid falls in love with
him. Astrid, 13, has an affair with the 40-something Ray. Star gets jealous of their
friendship and gets suspicious. One day, Star comes in, in a drunken rage and shoots
Astrid. Astrid is immediately removed and placed in a second home, the home of Ed and
Marble Turlock. At this home, she was treated like a slave. She was forced to clean and
baby-sit, and was never shown any affection, and was never introduced to anyone. Astrid
makes friends with a black neighbor, named Olivia Johnston, who the prejudiced Marble
condemns a hooker. When Marble finds that Astrid is friends with her, Marble beats her
up, and she once again gets moved, which she finds out at school, with her bags already
packed for her, and no chance to say good-byes. 
The third house, was a big, beautiful estate. Amelia, the foster mother took in girls as
slaves, and when she would leave, she would lock the refrigerator, and there was only one
phone which no one could use. Astrid was starving, and began digging through the trash
cans at school, when someone caught her and made fun of her, she stopped going to school.
She started pan handling at liquor stores so she could get change to call her case worker
to tell her what had been happening. She finally got a hold of her and was removed from
that home.
She is then sent to the home of Claire and Ron. Claire couldn't have children and loved
Astrid as her own. She was behind Astrid all the way with her goals, like drawing and
painting. Claire, however, had psychiatric depression and suspected Ron of cheating on
her. It got too hard on Claire, and she committed suicide. This had been the longest time
Astrid had been in a home. Ron had a business and it had been his idea to adopt Astrid,
so that Claire wouldn't be lonely. When Claire killed herself, Ron couldn't take care of
her. 
She was sent to to a shelter where she meets a guy named Adam and they become good
friends. She gets adopted by a woman named Reina where there are no rules, but a very
dysfunctional house, where,? they would drink and do drugs, which Astrid begins to do,
too. For survival, Reina and the girls collect and sell belongings like an everyday yard
sale. Throughout this time, Astrid keeps in touch with Adam. She turns 18 and decides to
leave. She moves in with Adam in New York, and they fall in love. Astrid learns to
forgive her mother, and she finally is getting to have a normal life, and put the past
behind her.
This is an extremely well written book, that will leave you feeling the same emotions as
Astrid, from confusion, to terror, to despair, and finally to a restored feeling of hope.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes good dramas. This book is a real
page-turner, which leaves you wondering what is going to happen next.