All the Other Mothers Hate Me

“The missing boy is ten-year-old Alfie Risby, and to be perfectly honest with you, he’s a little shit.”

The opening line of All the Other Mothers Hate Me illustrates Florence’s voice and perspective. She’s direct, abrasive, and unafraid to use provocative language like “little shit.” Harman uses this characterization to demonstrate that Florence is uninterested in conforming to social conventions.

“Today is a good day, I remind myself. It’s Friday. The moon is in Jupiter, an auspicious time for new beginnings. And, most important, I recall with a fizzle of excitement, I’m seeing Elliott tonight.

Everything is about to change.”

Here, Harman employs dark irony, as Florence feels that “everything is about to change” for the better, when in fact it’s about to get worse. Florence’s desire to see hopeful signs in astrological predictions emphasizes her longing to see change in her life. It also establishes her priorities and goals at the start of the novel—all of which are turned upside down by the story’s inciting incident.

“What would it be like to spend all day hanging out with my girlfriends, doing gentle exercise and eating slices of fruit that someone else had cut?

That would require having friends. The thought lodges itself in my brain like a piece of barbed wire.”

Florence’s character development is marked by The Negative Personal Impacts of Regret and Jealousy. In this passage, Florence reflects on her jealousy of the wealthy women she sees at the house on Notting Hill, who spend their days lounging leisurely with their friends. She uses the simile “like barbed wire” to describe this emotion, emphasizing the feeling as sharp and painful.