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In order to establish the extent to which the first Adrian Mole novel is useful to historians studying working-class family lifestyle at beginning of the Margaret Thatcher era, it is first of all critical to determine which themes to focus upon. It was expected that Margaret Thatcher, being the first female Prime Minister ever to rule the United Kingdom, should spark a sincere feminist revival up and down the country. Struggling to make ends-meet with a nation sinking into the likes of strikes and wars, Thatcher was referred to as the “Iron Lady”, a name supposedly attributed to the Prime Minister because of her recklessness towards a determined positive outcome, no matter the turmoil faced. In the first book of the Adrian Mole sequels, the author Sue Townsend depicts a fervent Thatcherite motif, however often with disapproval and distaste. //The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// seems to interlink the themes of monetarism, warfare and feminism through astonishingly accurate references relevant to the Thatcher era, and it is therefore interesting to establish whether a comical work of fiction can truly aid historians in an attempt to analyse and interpret such a particularly interesting component of British history.

In //The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾//, references to Thatcherite polemics in terms of abundant consumerism and materialism are noticeably present. When Adrian Mole enters his best friend Nigel’s house, he is astonished by the number of possessions the family’s home seems to harbour. Everything seems to be extremely modern and expensive, reflecting a growing obsession with a will to be part of the elite which were referred to at the time as the //nouveau riche//, or the “new rich”. Adrian’s obvious envy is communicated at multiple opportunities during the passage, such as: “This weekend with Nigel has really opened my eyes! Without knowing it I have been living in poverty for the past fourteen years. I have had to put up with inferior accommodation, lousy food and paltry pocket money. […] Nigel’s father has worked like a slave to create a modern environment for //his// family. Perhaps if //my// father had built a Formica cocktail bar in the corner of //our// lounge my mother would still be living with us. But oh no.” (p62) As a matter of fact, Nigel’s family soon becomes the Thatcherite consumerist cliché, and their spending is referred to at many a time during the novel: “Nigel’s mother is a spendthrift. They are always getting letters about having their electricity cut off and all because Nigel’s mother buys a pair of high heels every week.” (p26) These passages can also be related to a rather satirist contrast enunciated at the very beginning of the book, when Adrian receives a “dictionary” for Christmas as opposed to Nigel’s “new bike […]. It has got a water bottle, a milometer, a speedometer, a yellow saddle, and very thin racing wheels. It’s wasted on Nigel. He only goes to the shops and back on it.” (p9) The unequivocally noticeable dichotomy between the rich and the poor was a particular characteristic of Great Britain’s rule under Margaret Thatcher. When Nigel grooms Adrian’s lover Pandora, he immediately blames his family’s financial and class status by stating: “If I’d had a racing bike for Christmas instead of a lousy digital alarm clock, none of this would have happened.” According to //Postwar - A History Of Europe Sine 1945// by Tony Judt, economical Great Britain under Margaret Thatcher was a “more efficient place” (p543). However the social line separating the //nouveau riche// from the less wealthy classes is often seen to parallel the economical context. “Thatcherised Britain […] as a //society// […] suffered meltdown, with catastrophic long-term consequences. […] Margaret Thatcher did serious harm to the fabric of British public life. Citizens were transmuted into shareholders, or ‘stakeholders’, their relationship to one another and to the collectivity measured in assets and claims rather than in services or obligations.” (p543)

Towards the very end of //The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾// there is a reference to the Falklands War. The Falklands War was in fact a conflict/crisis fought in 1982 between Great Britain and Argentina. The conflict’s cause was the long-disputed sovereignty over the Falklands Islands. As a matter of fact, the conflict vociferously contributed to Margaret Thatcher’s re-election in June 1983, as she is widely believed to have led the United Kingdom to victory and Argentina’s surrender. The victory of her Conservative Party was by no means certain before the Falklands Crisis, but a wave of patriotic support from the whole of Great Britain swept the opposing candidates afar for Margaret Thatcher to parade in an indeed luxurious, confident political manner: “Buoyed by her recent victory in the Falklands War, in which she had established a party monopoly upon ‘patriotism’ and displayed once again her unusual taste for confrontation, Mrs. Thatcher won the election of June 1983.” - (//A History Of Europe Since 1945// by Tony Judt, p546) It is interesting to note the cynicism portrayed by Sue Townsend of the typical non-caring, unemployed middle aged male. Through Adrian Mole’s father, she uses the outbreak of the Falklands War to convey his nonchalant attitude towards something that neither concerns him nor requires his direct attention: “10 a.m. Woke my father up to tell him Argentina has invaded the Falklands. He shot out of bed because he thought the Falklands lay off the coast of Scotland. When I pointed out that they were eight thousand miles away he got back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.” (p189)

In reality, Adrian Mole’s father George Mole is a cipher conveying the grandeur of unemployment in the Thatcher years. The unemployed figures astronomically rose after she applied both the Indirect Taxation and the 15% increase on Value Added Tax policies. Unemployment reached an official figure of 3.6 million in 1982, though the criteria used to define who was employed or not was highly altered, allowing some to estimate that unemployment figures rose to 5 million. Sue Townsend depicts such statistics through an act of vandalism that took place at Adrian Mole’s school: “Scruton said that somebody had entered his office and drawn a moustache on Margaret Thatcher and written ‘three million unemployed’ in her cleavage.” As stated in the above, George Mole’s character is also often referenced in the novel to be dismal and unemployed, for example: “I can’t understand why my father looks so old at forty-one compared to President Reagan at seventy. My father has got no work or worries yet he looks dead haggard.” (p167) An adequate response to Adrian’s questioning about his father’s physical premature aging could be the excessive consumption of alcohol within the family household. Adrian’s parents, George and Pauline Mole, seem to meet or even escalate beyond the drinking standards expected from any working-class individuals during the Thatcher years. Although such generalisations and instantly affiliated clichés could be perceived as prejudice, both Adrian’s mother and father actually do drink in massive quantities, which entails them to often be drunk and disorderly. For example on Christmas day, Adrian notices his parents’ drinking activities held the previous night, the cause of their sour state the following day: “My parents had severe hangovers, so I took them breakfast in bed and gave them my presents at the same time.” (p162) When George Mole is invited to take part in the traditional Christmas family dinner, it is stated he is “too drunk to eat anything.” (p163) Adrian however seems to be unusually casual towards his parents’ drinking and its possible outcomes. Although some of his statements could be affiliated with that of the melodramatic sort, he never expresses any direct poignant concern (which is somewhat expected) towards his parents’ drinking: “I felt rotten today. It’s my mother’s fault for singing ‘My Way’ at two o’clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. […] There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics.”

Another interestingly developing aspect within the Mole household is Pauline Mole’s sudden heartfelt feelings towards embracing feminism. In terms of the theme’s relevance to the Thatcher years, it is needless to say that an earnest outbreak of feminist feelings would reach all women under the first female Prime Minister. As a matter of fact, Margaret Thatcher herself stated enthusiastically: “Just think, the women of this country have never had a Prime Minister who knew the things that they knew, never, never. And the things that we know are very different from what men know.” However, Helen Wilkinson’s The Thatcher Legacy in //On The Move: Feminism For A New Generation// interestingly claims that “In spite of her own remarkable achievement and in spite of all [the] indicators of progress, many feminists have found it difficult to embrace Margaret Thatcher and what she came to represent. Indeed it has become the conventional wisdom within some intellectual circles to portray her as positively anti-feminist.” This might explain why Pauline Mole finds her feminist views to parallel those of Germaine Greer rather than Margaret Thatcher. Greer is referenced alongside with Pauline Mole’s admiration numerous time, each developing Pauline Mole’s will for activism and feminist uprising: “My mother is reading //The Female Eunuch//, by Germaine Greer. My says it is the sort of book that changes your life.” Pauline Mole’s further development in terms of her feminist attitude linger on through the entire novel, whilst Adrian and his father consider themselves victim of her new principles and beliefs: “My mother has gone to a woman’s workshop on assertiveness training. Men aren’t allowed. […] my mother came home and started bossing us around. She said […] ‘Things are going to be different around here’ and things like that.” To prove the extent to which Pauline Mole craves female bonding and activism, she is willing to use her residence as headquarters, when towards the end of the novel Adrian states that: “My mother is holding her woman’s rights meetings in our lounge. […] They are not a bit ladylike.”

In conclusion, the themes uttered in the above are a clear indication of the elements arguably prone to a working-class family’s lifestyle. From Adrian Mole’s father’s unemployment to Adrian’s mother’s sudden radical feminism, Sue Townsend manages to convey an adequately perceptive and realistic portrait of life as a teenager under Thatcher. Some of the themes discussed in the above, such as economy, unemployment and wealth within the Mole household are equally contrasted with more fortunate families’ stable financial situations, such as Nigel’s family. Through Nigel’s family’s household, Sue Townsend also proves herself able to depict certain elements of consumerism and materialism, two themes highly affiliated with the excessive spending of the //nouveau riche// during the Thatcher years. Although the Falklands War itself is only briefly mentioned at the very end of the novel, the enmity between Great Britain and Argentina is oft commented on beforehand, providing the reader with an adequate factual knowledge regarding the varying attitudes towards the conflict. Ultimately, throughout factual-based events and humour-based cynicism conveying the instability of the Mole household, Sue Townsend’s //The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾// is an extremely useful source of information when studying working-class family lifestyle at the beginning of the Margaret Thatcher era.