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The Dress by Julia Darling

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The Dress by Julia Darling

What does it take for a family to get separated? Can this just happen over night or in a matter of a couple of hours? Has the society changed and is it easier to simply just separate? A lot of families get torn apart nowadays and there are several causes for all of this. In the short story “The Dress” written by Julia Darling from 2006, we are introduced to two girls who are slowly tearing their own family apart in a special way.

The mother of the two kids, Flora and Rachel, is a very sweet and caring person. She wants to do everything for her kids, but they aren’t always going to obey what she says. The mother, as mentioned in the text, is forty years old – actually, the story takes place as she is celebrating her fortieth birthday. She cares a lot for her two teenage girls – or as she would probably say; her angels in disguise. It’s clear, even to the oblivious eye, that she is what ties this family together. Without a mother figure like her that can take care of them, Flora and Rachel wouldn’t get along at all. The mother tries to be a strong person because she is alone after she divorced her husband, but she is not unbreakable as we see at the end of the story. The mother wants her kids to get along, but when this isn’t even possible, she almost breaks into tears.

Even though the mother tries to make the two sisters get along, it’s not working. They are so indifferent, that you would hardly be able to tell if they were in family or not. The relationship between these two girls is very tense, everything could get them to explode – or at least this is the case for Rachel. Flora is the jealous one in this relationship. She wants the things that Rachel has, which is shown by the dress. It’s clear to see that she envies the things that Rachel, and this is why she steals the dress – to show Rachel that she is there, too and that

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