In response to Lilly,

In Lilly's most recent blog, she posted the following paragraph:

After reading the entire book, I do not think that Charity is a very strong character because she is so easily shaped by her surroundings and more specifically the men in her life. I think that she learns that the romance narrative she grew up believing does not necessarily exist and that even though people are separated by class in the minds of others, just because you are of a certain social class does not mean you are morally superior. I liked this character and it was interesting to see how she changed and responded as the story progressed.

I agree with her in that she thinks that Charity is not a strong character but I think that way for a different reason that she does. I think that most of us, if not all, are shaped by our surroundings but that does not make us weak. I believe that we are products of our environment and products of nurture. So I don't feel that it's fair to single Charity out in that aspect. However, I do, in some aspect, agree with the fact that she can't be considered a strong charcter for the fact that she was substancially effected by the men in her life. I also feel that that was llittle change or progression in the character of Charity. She still acted close to the same way in the end as she did in the beginning. She was still willing to go with what was "expected" or what she was told to do. I don't think Charity is a character we want to model after but rather learn from.