Shivani+Chandrasekaram

__ LITERARY CRITIQUE __ __ By Shivani C. __ (Pd.5-6)

Most of the time, it is hard for a teenager and her grandma to enjoy each other’s company. Even if the grandmother wants to see her granddaughter, it is difficult for the young adolescent to choose her grandmother, over her peers. Even more, it’s harder for the young adult to choose her great-grandmother over spending time with her friends. In the story, //Three Century Woman//, Megan, a fourteen year old girl, doesn’t really want to go to the old age home in which her great-grandma lives. Megan instead, hopes to meet her friends at the mall. Richard Peck effectively portrays Megan as a dynamic character who completely changes in her attitude toward her great-grandmother from the beginning of the story, until the end. Megan is portrayed as a typical teenage girl. She is shown as a fourteen year old, who doesn’t like homework, dreams of going to the mall to escape the homework, and skip out on visiting her great-grandmother. Megan see’s Great Grandma Breckenridge as an old woman, living in an elder care facility, and being fragile and brittle, and boring. In the very beginning of the story it states, “Needless to say, I hated going. (Peck 7)” Through this statement, the author is saying that, ‘without a doubt, Megan didn’t want to visit’ as it were an obvious statement. But after Megan arrives at the Elderly Care Facility, she gets different impressions. As she first arrives, she’s noticing that Great-Grandma Breckenridge had outdone herself by wearing a pink bed jacket, a matching bow, and even a little lipstick. This may be of interest to Megan because now Megan can see her as more of an actual person, rather than just her old great-grandma who “was usually flat out in bed, dozing, with her teeth in a glass and a book in her hand. (Peck 9)” As Megan watches her great-grandma being interviewed, her feelings toward her change dramatically. Megan starts to feel as though great-grandma Breckenridge has a bold personality. She can see this through great-grandma’s actions, such when she makes jokes about her husband or just jokes in general, or how she is able to come up of such stories, in a little time, and make it believable. The text mentions, “…at least you know who you are…” This is a statement of Mrs. Breckenridge, and she mentions this after peering at Megan’s mom, and asking her who she is. So Mrs. Breckenridge comes to say, that everybody is the facility is old, and forget who they are. Even though Great-Grandma Breckenridge can be that person herself. At the end of the visit, Megan can see great-grandma is more than just a “…little withered leaf (Peck 14)” As Megan leaves, she kisses her great-grandma’s cheek and tells her that she will visit more often. But Mrs. Breckenridge replies in a joking matter, “Call first, I might be busy (Peck 14)” As Megan acts in the story, maybe I would’ve been the same. Being that I don’t know my great-grandparents, I can’t relate to her in that way, but my grandparents might’ve been my second choice over the mall with a few of my friends. A teenager is very judgmental in who she talks to or even spends time with. This is the way Megan is toward her great-grandparent in the beginning of the story. But as the story progresses, she grows to understand her great-grandma. Richard Peck opens us to the personality hidden within the people we don’t spend time with very much. As you walk around thinking that all your grandparents are, are old people wanting company…there is definitely more to them than that. And Richard Peck has opened us to that through his main character, Megan.