Wharton wrote Summer as being a fictional story, however she is revealing a tale that can be seen interpreted as a non fictional story about herself. Wharton reveals her struggles of adolescence through the character of Charity who finds herself in trouble because of her lack of knowledge. In the novel, Wharton focuses on Charity’s path to self-identity, relationships, and misunderstanding of love. By doing so, she is sending a message to the reader that she is trying to make sense of her past by expressing them in a novel. Knowing Wharton’s history, it is clear how Charity’s story in Summer is a more eventful and detailed version of Wharton’s adolescence. To begin, Wharton’s style of writing proves that she uses her past experiences…show more content… Evidently, through the novel Summer, Wharton is revealing the surprising fact that a major part of her adolescence life was her struggling to find her identity. This is proven through the feelings of not belonging and the confusing romance relationship that the character Charity encounters. Charity is told she originally lived in the Mountains, however has to remind herself “This is where I belong-this is where I belong,” (36), because she doesn’t feel like she fits in with the people that live there. Charity wants to believe that she once lived on the mountain but no matter how many times she told it to herself “the words had no meaning for her” (36). Wharton created a more dramatic version of the feelings she had towards her finding of her identity and where she belonged. Evidently, Wharton lived with a man who wasn’t her father and her mother was very different and not connected with her, therefore she felt the same emotions that Charity did however in a different environment. For the reason that Wharton did not feel that she fit in she most likely wanted to leave her current life to try and find a new one somewhere else. That is why she created Charity to want to leave North Dormer and with the attitude that “when it’s a place like North Dormer it’s enough to make people hate each other” (19). Wharton expresses in Summer her…show more content… Wharton experienced a “six-year sojourn of traveling and living in Europe with her family” (NPG), however she was originally from “the small, most fashionable society of New York” (NPG). Both women find themselves feeling like they do not belong in their society, because they live in a society where they did not come from. Evidently, Charity lacked a mother figure since a very young age and as a result was not taught what love means. Having a mother would have been essential to Charity when her feelings of affection towards Harvey had arrived and when Harney had hurt her. If she had a mother to refer to for advice, perhaps she would not have snuck away with Harney to live as if they were a married couple and as a consequence become pregnant. Charity often felt as though “his first kiss blotted it all out” (78), meaning her mind was so inexperienced with love that she became overwhelmed and clearly their relationship was moving too fast. Wharton uses Charity to explain her difficulties between her and her mother when she was young. Evidently, Wharton had a mother however it was as if she did not exist because of how terribly she raised Wharton, which is how she relates to Charity. Both as a young women had no guidance from a mother figure to understand men. Wharton believed for her entire adolescence that babies came from