completely crushed. She now believes that men only have one thing on their mind, and she repeatedly warns Lorraine about this. She even goes so far as to threaten Lorraine about the consequences of being in a car with a boy.

She's always warning me about getting into cars and things like that. When she goes to work on a night shift, she constantly reminds me to lock the doors and windows, and sometimes she calls on the phone if she gets a chance and tells me again. Beware of men is what she's really saying. They have dirty minds, and they're only after one thing. Rapists are roaming the earth.

Lorraine's mother is a single mom who works fulltime as a hospice nurse. When Lorraine was little, her mother had just gotten a divorce from her cheating husband when he was involved in a car crash and died. Lorraine's mother was never the same after two personally traumatic events happened within a short time period. Since then, she projects her fears and pain onto Lorraine by warning her of the terrible things men do to women. Not only that, but Lorraine's mother makes her daughter feel worthless and ugly. John doesn't like the way Lorraine's mother makes her feel and describes the situation as follows:

"The way her old lady talks you'd think Lorraine needed plastic surgery and seventeen body braces, but if you ask me, all she needs is a little confidence" (19).

John's perspective suggests that Lorraine's mother makes her feel physically unattractive. She also makes Lorraine feel untrustworthy because her mother has trust issues. For example, when Lorraine buys her mother some nylons (with Mr. Pignati's money) she asks her a couple of times where she got the money to buy nylons. Lorraine lies and tells her mother that she saved her lunch money for them. She describes the scene about the nylons and her mother as follows:

"She mulled that over a few seconds, but she had to get to work on time and couldn't devote her full energies to interrogating. She always makes me tell the same story over a week or so later to see if I slip up on any details" (108).

Lorraine's mother has had a hard life and it shows in her relationship with her daughter. She has learned not to trust anyone, she works hard, and she does the best she can with what she has in life, but this makes it very difficult for Lorraine to live with her.

The following is from the eNotes page on this novel. You can find out more about other characters and additional literary elements by following the link below. Just go to the "Navigation" column on the right hand side:

"Lorraine Jensen is a fifteen-year-old high-school sophomore who lives in the same Staten Island neighborhood as John Conlan, her best friend. She is intelligent and thoughtful, is interested in psychology, and wants to be a writer. She moved into John's neighborhood at the beginning of freshman year, and the first few weeks were torture for her. She was depressed and isolated because she didn't know anyone, and she was shy and insecure about her looks. She met John on the bus, when he sat next to her one day and started laughing. At first she was offended, thinking he was laughing at her, but then she began laughing, too, and from that day on, they were friends.

Lorraine calls herself "paranoid," because she's worried that others don't think much of her, but this is clearly a response to the way her mother has always treated her. Her mother has always told her how ugly and clumsy she is, and at the same time, repeatedly warns her about the evil intentions of men and boys and tells her never to be alone with them. Perhaps because of her sensitivity, she is very compassionate toward others, particularly people she perceives as underdogs. Her compassion is unusual among teenagers; for example, she writes movingly of a poor teacher who keeps her elderly and ill mother in the living room of her apartment, and about Mr. Pignati, whose wife has died."

Lorraine's mother is deeply misandrist, which simply means that she hates men. For many years now, Lorraine has been taught to fear, hate, and despise men. The reason for this lies in the circumstances of Mrs. Jensen's painful breakup with her husband, which was caused by his infidelities. To make matters worse, Lorraine's dad infected Mrs. Jensen with an STD, which she started to develop during her pregnancy with Lorraine. So not only did Lorraine's dad cheat on his wife, he also endangered her health and that of her unborn child.

Although Mrs. Jensen never talks about her ex-husband, she's become positively fixated on how awful men are in general. She's developed an obsession with hating men that has taken over her entire life, making it impossible for her to find any happiness or inner peace.

Unsurprisingly, this attitude makes life hard for Lorraine. As Mrs. Jensen believes that boys are only out for one thing, she effectively keeps Lorraine under lock and key so that she won't meet anyone. She has a pathological fear that Lorraine will be raped, which makes her hypersensitive about Lorraine wearing short skirts, walking alone, or riding in cars with boys. Mrs. Jensen's message to her daughter is a simple one: "Beware of men." She constantly dins that message into her daughter's head at every available opportunity.

Here is a quote by Lorraine about her mother:

"If I made a list of every comment she's made about me, you'd think I was a monstrosity."

This is the basis of the problems that Lorraine has at home.  Her mother, having been left by her husband to raise Lorraine alone, has become a bitter and angry woman.  She doesn't like her life, and she spends her time complaining about it, complaining about men, complaining about her patients, and complaining about Lorraine.  She directs her bitterness towards her daughter, whether it is in telling her that men are worthless or in suggesting that she herself (Lorraine) is worthless.  This last part she does by criticizing Lorraine's looks and behaviors.  She shows that this attitude isn't just related to Lorraine in comments that she makes about clients:

"I wish this one would go ahead and croak because her husband is getting a little too friendly lately."

However, for a teenager, it doesn't matter much that her mother acts that way to everyone.  What matters is that she acts that way towards her, causing Lorraine to be overly self-conscious and to lack self-esteem.  However, her mother's criticisms also cause Lorraine to be sensitive to the feelings of others and mature for her age.

Lorraine's mother leads a pretty miserable life on the whole. She seldom smiles and never enjoys herself. Her whole sorry existence is perpetually plagued with one problem or another. Whether it's her weight or chronic financial problems, there's always something weighing heavily on Mrs. Jensen's shoulders.

Due largely to her husband's infidelity and subsequent death, Mrs. Jensen has developed a very dark and cynical worldview, especially when it comes to men. She constantly warns Lorraine that men are only after one thing. She's also worried that Lorraine may end up being raped while she—Mrs. Jensen—is working nights, even going to the lengths of calling her up to remind her that she needs to check all the doors and windows are locked. Mrs. Jensen's life experiences have turned her into a bitter woman, her soul eaten away by hate. It's no wonder that Lorraine would much rather spend time in the company of the happy, welcoming Mr. Pignati, a man who really knows how to enjoy life.