Such a Pretty Girl Literary Elements

Young Adult Fiction

Current time in Estertown, Pennsylvania

Meredith Shale, recounting events from her perspective, recent events and those three years ago

Threatening, frightened, angry

Meredith is the protagonist; her father, Charles in the antagonist

Conflict between Meredith and her mother over the return of her father after serving only three years of his prison sentence for abusing her
Conflict between Meredith and her father over personal contact as she wants none and he will not accept this

Meredith filming her fathers touching her and his attempt to molest her again, with Meredith disabling him with an oak statue of the Virgin Mary

When Meredith realizes her parents are trying to have another baby this foreshadows the inevitable abuse that the child will suffer by her father

Meredith's mother tells Metedith that when her father molested her he made a mistake just like everyone else makes mistakes

Meredith refers to her mother being Barbie-like in appearance likening her to a doll that never ages and also to the toy that she remembers as being used for her to demonstrate where her father touched her

The oak figure of the Virgin Mary is Meredith's savior both figuratively as she trusts her safety to God and literally when the figure is Meredith's only weapon against her farher's attack

Sharon does not see Charles as an abuser paradoxically failing to see that she was one of his first victims having started their relationship when he was a young man of sixteen and she a child of twelve

Meredith worries that her relationship with Andy, who is four years older than she is, parallels the relationship if her parents, who also had a four year gap between them

The Complex didn't want Charles Shale to live amongst them, with the complex representing each resident who lives there

Estertown does not want a child rapist in their midst, attributing the feeling of anger at Charles' return to the town itself rather than the citizens that live there