White Oleander by Janet Fitch demonstrates how the protagonist, Astrid Magnussen, encounters herself with many struggles and obstacles that she must overcome. The only source of family that Astrid has is her beloved mother Ingrid Magnussen, which shows her charisma in her own egotistic way. The type of affection expressed from mother to daughter causes Astrid to feel suffocated due to the fact that her mother sees her as an extension of herself rather than a particular individual. This provokes Astrid to experience a difficult time setting aside from her mothers suffocation and outgrowing to become the individual she wants to be. Ingrids imprisonment causes Astrid to experience solitude when she is transferred to a foster home. She undergoes abusive, loss, and internal conflicts scaring her mentally. As Astrid experiences her coming of age, she begins to change and learns an ultimate life lesson. After triumphantly overcoming these life obstacles thrown at her, she learns about the intensity of love and loss and most importantly being a strong-willed independent woman.
Astrids life begins with her mother Ingrid, Astrids greatest fear (pg. 11) is her mom leaving her and never coming back. As we know more about Astrids mother we learn that Astrid does not have a husband and her father is irrelevant (pg. 26) Ingrid has all this rules about not letting men stay over at night but once Ingrid meets this man named Barry all her rules go down the thrash and Astrid begins to notice every single little thing about her mother. Ingrid keeps on having dates with Barry until Barry starts putting Ingrid into this oblivious road and soon Barry is nowhere to be found. Ingrid is so desperate and worried and as always Astrid is on the back, just watching her mothers mistakes. Ingrid blind by love goes on a quest to look for Barry and she finds him at his house and they make love (pg. 28) but Barry tells Ingrid he has another date.
Ingrid devastated wants revenge and poisons Barry. Now this is when Astrid takes on her life as an independent young woman. Ingrid in jail Astrid is put into a foster home. Her first foster home is with a woman named Starr, with Starr Astrid adopts Christianity as a religion to help her through the hard times. She also forms a bond with Ray who she talked to once about her struggles in life. Although Ingrid does not like the idea of her daughter being a Christian she can not do anything about it and Astrid continues to follow her religion. Astrid soon starts making her own decisions and when she clearly knows its wrong and her mother does not like it she starts seducing Ray and they start a relationship. All this ends up with a horrible accident and problems for everyone. She made the wrong choices and ends up getting shot by Starr and is moved to another foster home. One amazing thing about Astrid is that she get mauled by three dogs and amazingly she survives. This life lessons taught her a lot. It taught her that no matter how weak you are on the outside, you can be very strong in the inside and still survive the wildest fights.
Astrid is moved with Amelia, Amelia does not feed Astrid and the other girls until dinner time. This is another life lesson Astrid because soon after that Astrid stops having her period. In order to feed her body Astrid starts eating food from the thrash at her school. One students notices Astrids actions and she is embarrassed. Astrid grows tired of Amelia and soon she is moved to another foster home. From this foster home Astrid learned how to become a stronger person, if getting attacked by three dogs did not kill her, getting fed only once a day certainly will not kill her either.
Astrid is moved with Claire and Ron. Ron is never home so Astrid is always found with Claire. Astrid and Claire quickly find a connection and they start having such a good (pg. 213) time together. Claire is very nice, caring, and lovely. Claire is always asking Astrid did you have a good day at school? (pg. 217) and Astrid is very happy because no one had ever cared this much about her. Not even her own mother. She is definitely learning something from this life journey. As the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months Claire begins to suspect that Ron is having an affair because he is never home. Astrid tries to change Claires thoughts about Ron but Claire meets Astrids mother and her mother assures Claire that Ron is having an affair. Claire becomes worried about this and starts acting weird around Ron. On Christmas Ron is unable to show up and Claire gets frustrated. Claire began to drink and ruined (pg. 277) Astrids Christmas. Ron arrives and soon him and Claire begin to argue. Ron leaves and Claire locks herself in the room. The next day Claire is dead and Astrids world once again, is ruined.
The last place Astrid is moved to is MacLaren Childrens Center. They find her a new home with a woman named Rena Grushenka. While at this house Astrid learns more than just how to live with other girls. Astrid becomes very close friends with Nikki and Yvonne and has sex with Renas boyfriend Sergei. While in prison Ingrid is beginning to build up a following of fans, who all believe she is innocent. Ingrid and her lawyer begin to build up a case to get Ingrid released from prison. However, their case depends on Astrid, if she testifies that Ingrid did not murder Barry, Ingrid can be free, but if Astrid does the right thing and not lie Ingrid can easily stay in prison. Astrid soon realizes she holds the power to her mothers future. She is the one that gets to decide what to do with her mother lifes. She is the one that said she needs her mother.
Astrid lets Ingrid know how damaged she is because of what Ingrid did to her. Astrid gives Ingrid a choice, to have her testify or to have her return to the person her mother knew her as. In the end Astrid ends up not testifying in the case. This would probably be the most glorious moment for Astrid, one because she got to make her choice. A choice that mattered, that was heard. Two because it is not only a choice it is her mothers future and she chose to be an independent woman. In the end Astrid is living with Paul Trout in Berlin, Germany. Astrid reads a newspapers and its new about her mothers release from jail, and Astrid is a bit surprised to know that her mother still has some kind of power. Astrid admits that she wants to go back to California but that she cannot because she would be leaving Paul and she does not want to do this because she was abandoned so many times before she does not want to be the one that is abandoning someone.
As a person you must not let life be you, you must be life. Astrid did not learn only one thing from this coming-of-age journey. She learned multiple valuable life lessons that will be useful when she gets older. Her life is not a life most people desire. Her life is worth thrash but to her, her life is worth the world. She is able to jump over every obstacle she is given and be a stronger person. Astrid could not die she had to live and see herself become a person no one would have predicted. The reason she triumphed is because she gained new responsibilities through so many harsh years. She learned to be mature, and even though she was pushed to mature more quickly she did a good job handling her mothers case. One main reason she chose a new life without her mother is because she did not want to abandon Paul. She got mistreated and most of the time she was not loved, so she felt that if she came back to California she would be doing the same thing to Paul and in the end she would be the guilty person.
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