Secrets of a Charmed Life

“I’d surmised you might be the oldest. We firstborns are driven, aren’t we? We have to be. There’s no one leaving bread crumbs for us on the trail ahead. We blaze our own trail. And the younger ones, they look to us. They watch us—they take our cues from us, even if we don’t want them to.”

In this quote, Isabel forms a connection between herself and Kendra because they are both the older of two sisters. She sees the ambition in Kendra that she had, foreshadowing the reveal that as Emmy, she was a highly ambitious aspiring wedding gown designer who got close to immense success at the young age of 15. Her statement hints at the parental role Emmy had in her care of Julia.

“I taught myself to sketch, Mrs. Crofton. I checked books out of the library and I practiced on any blank piece of paper I could find. And then we moved here and I saw the dresses in your shop and I knew I wanted to design my own wedding gowns. This is what I want to do with my life.”

Emmy states her desire to become a wedding gown designer—her greatest ambition. This quote helps establish The Conflict Between Personal Ambition and Responsibility and shows how Emmy’s ambition makes her willing to do whatever she has to do to see her dream realized, especially as she approaches the age of 16. This brings her close to success as she grabs the attention of Graham Dabney, who designs costumes for the West End. However, it also brings disastrous consequences by causing her to bring Julia back to London just as the Blitz is about to begin.

“Instead of bouquets, the brides Emmy had left in Julia’s care now held enormous red polka-dot umbrellas.”

The passage explains the origin of Isabel’s Umbrella Girls paintings, as Julia once created umbrellas for her bridal sketches. It also foreshadows Emmy’s change from dressmaking to watercolor painting, with her Umbrella Girls paintings being both her way of coping with Julia’s disappearance and a symbol of her hope that she can one day find her.