True Innocence

Life is not always what we think it is or want it to be. We dream of the perfect world and the perfect life. However that is not always what happens. Youth is wonderful time, but instead of using the time to prepare for adulthood, we tend to take a giant leap into independence. Charlotte Temple reveals a more open real life account of how so many young girls fall for what they think is an invitation to a beautiful future.I loved reading the book because it is a depiction of what I lived through and saw so many other teens experience. We want to break away from what our parents teach us, so we latch on to influences from people we idealize. There is something about innocence that attracts all kinds of people. Some people, like La Rue, are jealous. Others like Montraville is impressed with having what no one else has explored. Still there are villains such as Belcour who just want to destroy. Davidson did a wonderful job at painting a visual picture of how girls were to be groomed for wife hood. She also provides insight into the nature of young men who are endowed with power over naive women.The struggles Charlotte encounter reminds me of how we overcome or manage in the mist of a bad situation. Most of us would have been angry and at Montraville for taking us from our home and depositing us in a place we know nothing about. But some how Charlotte does not feel that anger. Instead she forgives and prays for those who claimed to be her friends and lover. It is funny how poetic justice prevails. I have had the occasion forgive or hold on to a grudge. I chose to forgive my husband for many things and sat at his bedside as he died.Cathy N. Davidson touched my heart with this story that encompasses a real part of my life. I didn't get taken from the country I grew in, but I left my home to become a wife to a man who said "I love you." I was not as passive as Charlotte; neither was I as Godly as she. I think that might have made my plight worse. Never the less I lived through it to love again. Poor Charlotte did not.