Who is Lettie
Confession time comes for me when I admit, as the writer, I am still not really sure who Lettie is. I always think of West Side Story, when I think of these characters. In West Side Story the argument is always made that you need a better actress to play Anita because anyone can play the sweet, demure role of Maria. Similarly, Lettie is the nicer version of my pair of POV characters. I thought perhaps if I tied this down on paper I can understand her better to portray her better.
Her hair- Ponytail- I wanted her to wear a pony tail because it is young and girl next door. When my daughter was little I became obsessed with pony tails- for me- a perfect pony tail never was a natural phenomenon- my daughter never had those perfect ponytails you see out on people who cared how they appeared to others. I was always that mom- with the kid and the off center crappy parted pony. I wanted Lettie to care for the perfection of outward appearances.
She dresses conservatively in a uniform. I base some of cult living in my experiences touring Shaker Village and Amish farms. So Lettie dresses neat and conservatively.
Lettie's Job- Harvesting Apples (look for symbolic irony there)
What she needs: Security
What makes her Giddy?
Belly Bee stings when she thinks of Culver's belly button.
Belly Bee stings when she thinks of Culver's belly button.
What is exciting to her? Wearing red panties and the attention she gets from Culver
It's funny, because I wrote Lettie out of I part of me that I don't like. I don't like that I have this image in my mind that I would like other people to see and it bothers me if someone sees me as anything different than the carefully constructed image I have of myself. I lie and say I am always kind. It is true that I work really hard at kindness, but no one is really always kind. So in Lettie I was trying to harness my own feelings of inadequacy. I thought I could present her as only needing to be loved, and that is the character she would become, desperate for love. But I modeled her so much after myself. Needing praise, attention (shh don't tell anyone I'm attention starved-- captain obvious I know,) but something else came out in her. The thing that is not right about her is that she will accept all of that praise and attention in place of the love and security she so desperately needed. Lettie needed something I have always had a mother. My mother is an amazing woman, I can't imagine life without an amazing mom. So all the security, love, attention, Lettie needed was really her mother's love she needed.