THE TULIP TOUCH

ANNE FINE

1996, PUFFIN BOOKS

SUMMARY

There are two main characters in this mystery novel, who are portrayed through the way they act, what they say and through their behaviour: The protagonist Natalie Barnes and the antagonist Tulip Pierces. Natalie, who is the first person narrator of the story, is the daughter of the manager of a hotel called Palace. She is at a disadvantage by her mother because of her younger brother Julius who is the apple of her mum's eye. Everything to do with him comes first and second and next and last. Although Natalie is still very young she already has very mature thoughts for her age. She analyses everything except her eight years lasting friendship with Tulip because they feel like sisters. Every time the two girls get up to mischief Natalie is the one who gets told off. She just wants to keep her friend out of trouble. But in spite of everything she is proud of Tulip. Until the day when..

Tulip comes from a very bad social background. She is not taught by anyone how to distinguish right from wrong. Rules don't matter to her because whatever she does she gets punished, so she doesn't bother about them. She is brought up as if feelings didn't matter and so she assumes that other people's don't matter much either. She is fascinated by death, violence and fire. Moreover she is nosy about other people's feelings and it seems as if she had none of her own. Tulip gets pleasure from tormenting animals and persons, even Natalie. She just likes to prod and invest, and twist and poke, to watch people go ugly with fright, or burst into tears of misery. Her mother is too feeble to protect herself and her daughter against the vile, aggressive and bullying father. She is out of school more often than in and when she is there she is a real nuisance. When she is at the Palace there seems to be a sort of magic around her. She does everything to impress her new friend Natalie and her family; she flirts with Natalie´s dad and sucks up to her mum. But in her "home" she seems different, just a shell, as if she'd slipped away invisibly and left some strange, strained imitation in her place. Tulip lies right, but that is what Natalie´s father calls the "Tulip Touch": This tiny detail that almost makes you wonder if she might, just for once, be telling the truth. She loathes being teased and anyone who doesn't believe her is going to be her enemy and hated for ever. But why does she tell lies all the time? Well, perhaps because in her eyes it is the world that is wrong, not her words. The desolate girl with the pale and apprehensive face only acts her age once a year, and that's on Christmas day which she spends at the Palace every year. It's Tulip's favourite day and it plays a key role in the story.

When Natalie first meets Tulip she is standing still as a statue in the sea of corn, nursing a kitten. The two girls make friends and spend loads of time together inventing cruel and unpleasant games like "Hogs in a Tunnel", "Road of Bones" or "Fat in the Fire". They usually play at the Palace because Natalie´s father forbids her to go to Tulip's because it is "no fit place for a child" as he calls it. Natalie´s teachers realise Tulip's family background problems and warn her of the bad influence she has on her. They say Tulip is a "hold-your-coat-merchant". Tulip starts to influence Natalie´s thoughts and so they gradually become criminals. When they first start with a game called "Little Visits" it is their aim to get into the people's by asking them for some small favours, but gradually the two girls set themselves harder and harder tasks. Finally they invent the "Wild Nights" because of Tulip's passion for fire. And one of these nights makes the turning point of the mystery novel. Natalie is bewitched by the fire of the barn they had set alight. It seems to Natalie as if her friend is living her secret life while she is doing what she is told. Suddenly she becomes aware of being Tulip's slave and decides not to stand in her shadow any more. She cuts herself off from Tulip and comes across a few things she's totally forgotten: the feeling of power and the sense of being in control. She feels relief as if she was coming out of the dust. She doesn't want to be the Natalie she was before. One day the police comes to ask her about Tulip who has got into severe trouble. They want her to help them to analyse her, to understand why she does such things like stealing or arson attacks. From this day on she checks the newspaper every day to find out if Tulip has done anything criminal again.

When Natalie meets her again Tulip threatens that she will play just one more game, a final game, but that will be the worst of all: She sets the Palace on fire on Christmas Evening.

PERSONAL APPRECIATION

"No one is born evil. No one." That's the subtitle of the book. It refers to Tulip. It makes me think why she behaves the way she does. In my opinion she does so because of the treatment she gets at home. Her parents never tell her what was right or wrong. Who could she know it from then? So in my opinion the character of a person depends on the upbringing. The parents build up the child's conscience. I is there responsibility to give their child a sense of right and wrong and to prepare him/her for the future, for life.

I do not know if I feel sympathy for Tulip. One the one hand she is just an ordinary young girl who hasn't experienced love in her childhood. But on the other hand there is something wicked about her, something really evil that repels me