The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle Literature and Writing Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

I glanced toward the fireplace and was startled to see a blaze there. It took me another moment to realize that my journal was being consumed by flames.

I made a move toward it.

"Stop!" my father cried. "Let it burn."

"But..."

"To ash!" (22.150-22.153)

Charlotte's father confiscates her journal and destroys it. (Weird. We thought only fascist dictators burned books.) Mr. Doyle is censoring his daughter's writing and by doing so, he is telling her who she can and cannot be. The burning is a rejection – and a very violent one – of who Charlotte has become. If her father believed the book was only fiction, then why would he insist on burning it? Is it the spelling he finds so unsettling? Or the ideas?