Chapter 32

Summary Francie began writing a diary on her thirteenth birthday, and at the end of the year she reads through it. Most of the incidents in the diary are everyday occurrences, but what is regularly noted are her father's sickness and his continuous absence from work. One day, Sergeant McShane brings her sick father home.

Francie has also started noticing changes in her body. She realizes that she is growing into a woman. Like other girls of her age, curiosity over the topic of sex enters her young mind.

This chapter includes entries from Francie's diary, which she kept during the year she was thirteen. Besides telling about her everyday life, she also makes comments on more philosophical issues, like intolerance, marriage, maturing into womanhood, and sex. In the diary, Francie also reveals her great concern about her father's illness, which is largely caused by his excessive drinking. The fact that she writes about his sickness so often shows that she is deeply troubled about Johnny, her favorite parent.

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