Bad Characters by Jean Stafford
"Bad Characters" by Jean Stafford is a fictional autobiography that explores the complex friendship between two young girls, Emily Vanderpool and Lottie Jump. Emily, the privileged protagonist, struggles with maintaining friendships due to her impulsive behavior and tendency to insult those around her, including her own family. This leads to her isolation, with her only companion being her cat, Muff, who reflects Emily's need for solitude. In contrast, Lottie is a scrappy, underprivileged vagabond who enters Emily's life during the Christmas season and quickly becomes a source of fascination for her.
As their friendship develops, Lottie manipulates Emily into participating in shoplifting, leveraging Emily's guilt about her social advantages. This interaction forces Emily into a moral dilemma, culminating in a series of events that teach her vital lessons about friendship, accountability, and the consequences of her actions. Ultimately, Emily emerges from these experiences with a newfound understanding of relationships, learning to navigate her friendships with more care and empathy. The narrative poignantly contrasts themes of privilege and poverty while delving into the psychological growth of a young girl grappling with her identity and the influence of her choices.
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Bad Characters by Jean Stafford
First published: 1954
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The early twentieth century
Locale: Adams, Colorado
Principal Characters:
Emily Vanderpool , the narrator and protagonistLottie Jump , an eleven-year-old vagabondJack , Emily's brotherStella , andTess , Emily's sistersThe Vanderpools , Emily's parents
The Story
The bad characters in this fictional autobiography are two young girls: Emily Vanderpool, the protagonist and narrator, and Lottie Jump, an eleven-year-old vagabond from the lower-class section of town. A brash, impudent, yet privileged girl, Emily has not yet learned to maintain friendships. Because she believes that she needs frequent solitude, she insults her friends until she loses their friendship. Always Emily repents of these impetuous actions, but always too late; she indeed alienates all of her friends. Even her brother and sisters are targets of Emily's vituperation.
Emily has one friend—her cat, Muff. Muff dislikes all humans except Emily, mirrors Emily's need for self-inflicted privacy, and, by extension, mirrors Emily herself. Because Muff and Emily are mirror images, Stella, her sister, frequently refers to Emily as "Kitty" whereas Jack, her brother, calls Emily "Polecat."
As the Christmas holidays approach, Emily, without a friend, sits home alone with Muff. When she investigates a sound coming from the kitchen, she quickly discovers a young girl stealing a piece of cake. Tall, sickly looking, ragged, and dirty, this girl, Lottie Jump, is the antithesis of Emily. Lottie frequently lies, steals, has ragged teeth, and comes from a lower-class family. Lottie's mother is a short-order cook in a dirty café; her father has tuberculosis; her brother has received no education. By contrast, Emily has a good home, wears nice clothes, attends a good school, attends church regularly, and has educated, healthy parents. However, during the course of one afternoon's conversation, the spirited Lottie, who explains that she appeared in Emily's kitchen not to steal but to visit Emily, manages to convince the vulnerable Emily to become her friend. Incredible as the story may appear, Emily acquiesces.
That afternoon, the girls search through Emily's mother's bureau drawers. Emily, however, fails to notice Lottie stealing Mrs. Vanderpool's perfume flask. Emily's many advantages make Emily feel guilty, which is why, perhaps, she succumbs so easily to Lottie's proposition. To remain friends, Lottie threatens, Emily must not only join in a shoplifting spree at the local dime store but also bring along money for the trolley fare. Reluctantly, Emily agrees to the plan.
Before she leaves the Vanderpool home, Lottie steals the cake she initially sought earlier that day. That evening, Emily allows her parents to believe that a vagrant stole the cake and, because of her guilty conscience, has a tantrum when her mother worries about the loss of the perfume flask.
In the following few days, ordinary events cause Emily to feel even more conscience-stricken with regard to her approaching day of shoplifting. Her dad's visiting friend, a respectable judge, discusses vandalism and punishment of criminals. Emily steals her Sunday-school offering to pay for both trolley fares, and on the fatal day, she begs off from baby-sitting for her younger sister. Most of all, she worries about the Sunday-school offering she has taken to pay for the trolley ride, money intended for widows. Ironically, she does not want to steal anything and certainly does not need anything. Repelled by Lottie's suggestion, she does not even wish to see Lottie again. However, she feels mesmerized and fascinated by this clever girl's persuasive personality, by her thieving, by her unfortunate background, and by her colloquial Oklahoma dialect.
On Saturday, Emily meets Lottie and is astounded to discover Lottie wearing a huge hat. Emily does not realize that Lottie's hat is a repository for the day's stolen articles. In the trolley car, Lottie, adept at stealing, carefully explains Emily's role. In exchange for half of the stolen articles, Emily is to divert the clerk's attention while Lottie steals the articles and hides them under her huge hat.
By late afternoon, and after several articles have been successfully stolen, Emily suddenly and characteristically needs to be alone. This time, however, she insults Lottie at the same moment Lottie attempts to hide a string of pearls. Whirling around to notice the target of Emily's insults, the clerk catches Lottie in the act of stealing the pearls.
Although she has been caught stealing, Lottie cleverly pretends to be deaf and dumb and points an accusing finger at her young accomplice: Emily Vanderpool. Because the authorities believe that a more powerful and advantaged Emily has victimized an obviously handicapped Lottie, they reward Lottie with a bag of candy and send her home.
Because this is Emily's first offense, she is remanded to her father's custody. Subsequently, she faces her father's friend, Judge Bay, who lectures to her on the subject of thievery. Then she faces her wounded mother's recriminations and those of her brother and sisters.
Emily, however, has learned important lessons from this experience. She no longer thoughtlessly insults her friends when she wishes to be alone. Instead, like adults, she feigns a headache or a dentist appointment. She has also learned to maintain more than one friendship.
Meanwhile, her mirror image, Muff, has also grown up. Rather than miss Emily's infrequent companionship, Muff has been busy herself—having kittens.
Bibliography
Austenfeid, Thomas Carl. American Women Writers and the Nazis: Ethics and Politics in Boyle, Porter, Stafford, and Hellman. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Goodman, Charlotte Margolis. Jean Stafford: The Savage Heart. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Hulbert, Ann. The Interior Castle: The Art and Life of Jean Stafford. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Roberts, David. Jean Stafford: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.
Rosowski, Susan J. Birthing a Nation: Gender, Creativity, and the West in American Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
Ryan, Maureen. Innocence and Estrangement in the Fiction of Jean Stafford. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
Walsh, Mary Ellen Williams. Jean Stafford. Boston: Twayne, 1985.
Wilson, Mary Ann. Jean Stafford: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996.