Clara’s Day

Would you spountaneously walk naked in front of your whole school?
Of course not, but just because you aren’t Clara Tilling, a 15 year-old student who one day decides to walk naked during the school assembly.
As a matter of facts, Clara is a very shy girl, but she decides to act this way because she feels very lonely and she wants to receive attentions from other students and from her mother. Nevertheless, she doesn’t succeed, since in the end still no one is caring about her.
The story is written by Penelope Lively and this text will discuss the characterisation of Clara, the relationship between Clara and her mother and the common theme of family problems.

The story is set in a school in London, apparently in modern days (probably arond the end of the 20th century) and the characters seem to belong to a middle/wealthy class.
The main character is a teenager girl named Clara Tilling. She’s 15 year old, she’s a student and she lives alone with her mother and her mother’s younger boyfriend Stan since her parents are divorced. Nothing is told about Clara’s father. During the talk with the Head, she says she hangs out with 2 other girls named Liz and Stephanie, but she doesn’t seem to have many friends.
Despite her act in the beginnning, Clara seems to be quite an ordininary and quiet girl, who doesn’t stand out and does what people expect from her. She does well at school (excluding physics and chemistry), since the headmaster compliments for her marks and tells her that she will not have any problems with her O-levels, when she finishes.
As her mother says, Clara’s usually very shy and this makes her "naked walk” look even more astonishing. One thing the reader can deduce about this act is the fact that she must have planned it since she’s wearing no underwear during the assembly. This shows Clara’s completely consciuos of what she’s doing and she has planned everything carefully.
But why? Why would a girl do such a thing? Truth is that she does what she does because she feels lonely and unappreciated and she wants people’s attention, especially her mother’s.
In fact the Clara’s surrounded by people that just can’t understand her like for example her teacher, who comes to her soon after the nude episode. She doesn’t concern about how the girl can feel and doesn’t ask her why she did it, she just talk about school exams.
Another example is the headmaster. She actually tries to talk with the girl and she calls her in her office, but it’s suddenly clear that she doesn’t give much importance to what Clara has done: she asks her to wait while she signs some papers, but Clara’s problem is much more important and should be a priority. While waiting, Clara looks around in the office and observes some photos of the Head’s children and husband: the woman has a perfect family and this seems to hurt Clara a bit, maybe because she could compare that to her own home situation, which is not very good.
Then they start speaking, and it comes clear that neither the headmaster can understand Clara. She asks her if everything’s ok at home, how she’s feeling and if she has problems at school, but the girl replies bluntly and so the headmaster changes the subject. She doesn’t want to investigate more even if she has noticed that there’s something wrong with Clara, and she just says that she will send a letter to her mother to inform her of what happened.
Family relations is another important theme in this story, and we get to see it in the following ways: Clara’s home situation isn’t very good, since she has divorced parents and her mother lives her own life with her younger boyfriend without caring about the daughter.
Clara tries to catch her attention in all the possible ways, but the mother never realizes how much the girl needs her affection. For example, when Clara comes home after the day of the nude episode at school and the woman asks if there are any news, Clara lies and says no. At that point, the mother just continues to read her magazine and doesn’t see that there’s something wrong. If she really knew her daughter, she would be able to see that that Clara’s trying to hide her real feelings. When Clara’s mother read the headmaster’s letter, a few days later, she doesn’t believe it at first, but then she starts laughing and telling embarrassing stories about Clara. She makes fun of her own daughter right in front of her. In the end the mother and Stan leave without even saying a proper goodbye.
Finally alone, Clara’s starts crying desperately, because she didn’t manage to get attention, respect and care from anyone including her mother.

The main aim of this story may be to analyse the structure of modern family and the problems that can occur when the parents divorce or something in their relationship doesn’t work. It also shows how children can be the victims of a bad family situation, and how far they can go when they’re not given enough love.