The name of the novel is “Roxy’s Baby” and it was written by Catherine Mac Phail. It is about a very rebellious teenager called Roxy who becomes pregnant at a party, after being spurred on by her friends. She feels she cannot tell her family and flees to London, eventually finding Mr and Mrs Dyce who on the outside seem sympathetic to her and offer to help her and other girls in her situation, but turn out to have more sinister motives. The focus of my essay is the way in which my attitude towards Roxy’s characterisation changes throughout the novel.

            At the beginning of the novel my reaction towards Roxy is one of annoyance and shock because of her attitude and blindness to the fact that the people around her were probably going through most of the same problems as her, sometimes more. The quotation “Oh, shut up you!” clearly shows Roxy’s aggressive behaviour towards her family and her refusal to listen to what they have to say. In addition, “She threw the hairbrush at her sister,” accurately displays Roxy’s violent tendency by suggesting that she turns to violence to solve her problems and uses it as a first resort rather than a last. Moreover, an example that effectively proves her selfish nature is, “I’m going to look after number one,” Roxy’s selfish nature cuts her off from most people and the idea of looking out for herself is stupid because a lot of her problems were of her own doing. Indeed, the quotation, “I’ll keep on being selfish,” expertly portrays her selfishness for one and her arrogance in her refusal to accept that being selfish all the time does not help her at all. Although her outer feelings were aggressive and selfish, her inner feelings were quite different. The quotation, “They had a nice family unit without Roxy spoiling it,” skilfully illustrates Roxy’s guilt for making family life harder because of her disobedience and constant outbursts. “Now, there was no daddy to listen to her,” cleverly demonstrates her sense of loneliness since the loss of her father. Her depression  is clearly apparent  in the quotation, “Her eyes had once been hazel bright but they seemed dull to her now,” Furthermore, her depression is shown effectively by suggesting that her perception has become a lot more negative and she now sees  things with a pessimistic attitude. Even with these inner feelings presented, empathy towards Roxy is not huge because she has brought those problems upon herself by acting selfishly and not allowing other people to help her.

           As the novel progressed my empathy towards Roxy grew as she became more desperate to accept other people’s help rather than reject it, obviously realising that see needed all the help she could get if was going to be able to cope with the problems she had. She also slowly grew to accept and love her unborn baby, instead of acting was not there or just a mistake. This shows that she makes the best of her misplaced judgement which started to make me respect her. The quotation, “That’s the first time you’ve called him “your baby,” perfectly exhibits Roxy’s caring attitude towards her baby because she stops thinking of the baby as a thing growing inside her and instead as her child whom she must protect. Roxy is determined as shown successfully by, “If she had to pick the lock, if she had to break the door down, she was determined to do it,” The quotation shows her determination because it suggests she is willing to go to huge measures to open this one door. In addition, the quotation, “But they could have been in some other accident that she’d never heard about. One of them, both of them, could be dead, and she didn’t even know,” shows both the fact that Roxy does care for her mother and sister, but also that she assumes the worst possible from anything she can draw upon. “She decided then that even if she couldn’t actually be with her, she was at least going to watch out for Anne Marie,” This strongly illustrates Roxy’s affection towards Anne Marie by suggesting that she would do anything to make sure Anne Marie was safe.  

            At the end of the novel I felt respect for what Roxy did and sympathy for what she had to go through. “The fire engines were close, so close they had to be here on time. But if Dragon Woman saw her, it would hold her up just long enough for them to arrive,” accurately displays her bravery to put her faith in the fire brigade’s speed and risk her life to give them time and save the other girls. Furthermore, the quotation, “They had killed him. Because they knew he had been planning to help her escape,” skilfully demonstrates one of the reasons for my sympathy towards Roxy. Not only was she faced with a corpse which is a traumatic experience, but also the fact that he died trying to help her which would be a weight on her conscience. Roxy’s resourcefulness is effectively portrayed by the following quotation, “She was going to make the biggest distress signal anyone had ever seen. She was going to set fire to Dragon House.” This quotation shows us that not only can Roxy use her surroundings well in a plan, but she also is quite daring and good at thinking under pressure.

            In conclusion, Roxy as a character is memorable because she changes throughout the book and reader’s attitude changes with it. How these attitudes changed was the original question of this essay and it is very important for the book because the character of Roxy is rather average on the surface but it is the transitions in her personality and the reader’s changing perceptions of Roxy that gives her more depth and meaning. These changes are what make the character of Roxy so memorable and not the character of Roxy, on its own.