White Oleander

I finished the book, and was very pleased with it. After Claire commits suicide, Astrid goes to a brutal children's facility until she is taken in by Rena, a money-obsessed Russian. At Rena's house Astrid gains a harder shell, learning to always ask, "What's in it for me?" She corresponds with Paul Trout, who she met at the children's facility, until he moves to New York. The book then skips ahead, Astrid and Paul Trout are living in Berlin scrounging a living off of his comics and her art. They recieve news that Astrid's mother was released from jail, and Astrid realizes that she really does love her mother, and will always miss her home.
Three themes I noticed were beauty as power, that your past doesn't always predict your future, and that love is a sickeningly powerful force. Beauty as power is demonstrated first by Ingrid, who uses her beauty not only to influence people, but to look down on them. Ingrid views most of humanity as inferior to her, because she is beautiful and can create beauty with her poetry. At one point Astrid describes her mother as only responding to the laws of beauty, because those were the laws that ruled her world. As the story goes on and Astrid grows she starts to use her beauty as power, but in different ways. She uses it to win people over, or to get what she wants from them, but she never uses it like her mother. Astrid almost always has a little humility, whereas her mother never showed any.
Astrid struggles with her past all through the book. She wonders about her father, her childhood and all the things that make her who she is. As she discovers the truth about her past, she finds that it doesn't define her as she thought it would, it's just irrelevant details of her life. She eventually tracks down and meets her father, but decides quickly to move on, and leave him in her past where he belongs.
Love has many roles in this book, it's a motive for murder, it redeems, it hurts and itdevelops people, each role that it plays is equally powerful. First Ingrid's love for Barry drives her mad, eventually causing murder, then Astrid's love for her mother causes her to not tell the police anything, even though she knows what her mother did was wrong. One of the most damaging loves is Astrid's love for Ray, which eventually almost gets Astrid murdered. Astrid's love and emulation of Olivia cuases her to degrade herself behind a park bathroom. Claire's love for Astrid develops her character in huge ways, she becomes more comfortable and gains an identity seperate from her mother's, but Claire's death makes Astrid give up on happiness. Eventually, Astrid's love for Paul Trout makes her take a leap of faith to go find him. Love is the most prominent theme throughout the book, inspiring change, pain, happiness and hate.

Essay Question: How do you think each stage of Astrid's journey develops her into the woman living in Berlin? What influence did each family have on her and which character traits did they instill?