Make Lemonade

Jolly, a 17-year-old high-school dropout with two children from different fathers, provides an example of where LaVaughn could end up if she doesn’t reach her goal of attending college. As with other characters in the novel, Wolff purposefully leaves Jolly’s race ambiguous, but what is clear is that Jolly has had the chips stacked against her throughout her life. While Jolly did have a foster parent she called “Gram,” who took care of her and even sewed Jolly’s name on her “‘family-tree T-shirt’” (158), Gram died and Jolly spent her adolescence without a family of any kind, living on the street in a refrigerator box. At one point, Jolly implies that a drug addiction caused her to become pregnant, saying “‘You end up pregnant/because some guy has some nice high for you’” (154). While Jolly no longer does drugs, she now has a baby and a two-year-old to support, without even a high-school education to help her.

From the beginning of the novel, LaVaughn sees Jolly’s situation a cautionary tale, an illustration of a fate she never wants for herself, to the point that Jolly literally becomes a representation of LaVaughn’s fears. Jolly’s apartment is always filthy, and at one point, after fantasizing about college and a good job, LaVaughn looks at herself in Jolly’s mirror: “I put one finger up to wipe off/just a little bit of yuck off the glass/to see me better/and I’m afraid” (24). LaVaughn fears that if she lets down her guard and stops working hard—orif she experiences some of the bad luck Jolly has—she will end up trapped, like her reflection in Jolly’s dirty mirror. As LaVaughn says, “I know I won’t end up like Jolly./But maybe she thought she knew that too” (28).

The question of how much of Jolly’s problems are due to bad luck—as LaVaughn says, Jolly is “a magnet” (73) for it—and how much these problems are caused by her own decisions becomes a central issue in the novel. LaVaughn’s mother thinks that Jolly “‘needs to take hold’” (36), as she wonders, “‘Why isn’t that girl back in school?’” […] “‘Why’s she have TWO babies?’” (93). LaVaughn, too, becomes frustrated with Jolly’s refusal to accept welfare, especially since the children aren’t receiving medical care.

In fact, LaVaughn’s urging Jolly to return to school and accept help drives Jolly’s growth throughout the novel. Once she’s in school, Jolly is motivated to work hard, fix her mistakes, and feel pride in her accomplishments for the first time. While it’s not always an easy progression—LaVaughn is frustrated by the way Jolly is “quick with just-okay” (130) in homework as in other areas of her life—Jolly learns CPR well enough to save her daughter from choking to death. By the end of the novel, Jolly has nearly enough credits to get her GRE, and her life is heading in a more positive direction. However, her relationship with LaVaughn has suffered as a result: LaVaughn says she’s “been broken off/like part of [Jolly’s] bad past” (198), and the two barely speak. While the girls don’t manage to renew their connection, both are headed toward more hopeful futures thanks to the growth they’ve experienced together.

In the latter portion of Make Lemonade, Jolly is inspired by the story of an old woman making lemonade that she hears in school; this story perhaps best answers the question of how much control Jolly has over her own situation, and how much simply comes down to bad luck. As Jolly tells it, the story concerns a poor blind woman who is tricked into taking a sour lemon home as her children’s only food, so she makes the lemon into lemonade for her starving children. Like this woman, Jolly has ended up with a lot of lemons in her life. But “‘the point of it’” (173), as Jolly puts it, is that this woman, and Jolly herself, will do everything they can to make lemonade out of those sour lemons.

LaVaughn describes her mother as “a big Mom” (82), a woman who exerts a huge influence in her life. LaVaughn’s father died in an accidental shooting when LaVaughn was very young, and her mother had to fill the role of both parents, so “she got huge. Like she multiplied” (81). LaVaughn’s mother emphasizes the importance of education and has high standards for her daughter; as a result, she has a significant impact on LaVaughn’s development throughout the novel.

In addition to her job, LaVaughn’s mother is the captain of the Tenant Council, and she spends her evenings working to better her community, rather than accepting her situation. Her work ethic and drive to succeed clearly rubs off on LaVaughn, who sets her sights on a college education when she’s in fifth grade. LaVaughn, not her mother, brings up the idea of college, but her mother “sunk her teeth into” the idea (12) and pushes LaVaughn to stay focused whenever her motivation appears to waver.

Throughout Make Lemonade, the main impediment to LaVaughn’s educational goals is her job babysitting for Jolly. As a result, LaVaughn’s mother disapproves of LaVaughn’s choice to continue working for Jolly, and a harsher, judgmental and even self-righteous side of her character emerges. When LaVaughn’s mother meets Jolly for the first time, she proclaims that “‘some people make a bad bed. They just have to lie in it’” (37). Throughout the novel, LaVaughn’s mom continues to insist that LaVaughn must work hard and take responsibility for her actions, precisely so she won’t end up like Jolly. While LaVaughn herself is more understanding of Jolly’s situation, she also takes on her mother’s views at some point, as she becomes frustrated with Jolly’s tendency to leave things “not all the way done but part way” (130). LaVaughn herself, on the other hand, has absorbed her mother’s lesson that “all the way is my ticket out of here/not to end up like Jolly” (130).

While LaVaughn’s mother can be a “hard referee” (37), she does show concern for Jolly and her children: she helps Jolly clean herself up when she’s attacked, and she congratulates Jeremy for helping to save his sister from choking. Most of all, LaVaughn’s mother clearly loves her daughter. Though she can be exacting and demanding, LaVaughn’s mother just wants her daughter to succeed and gain access to a better life. As she says, LaVaughn attending college will make her “‘prouder/than I been in my whole life’” (11).