The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Frankie is the novel’s protagonist. She is a dynamic character who begins the novel with a childlike mentality: She keeps gerbils, “had never been in love” (7), and she lists her favorite food and favorite color as important aspects of her identity. However, by the novel’s end, five months later, she is a “strategist” who evaluates how to gain the upper hand in social situations, recognizes her own and others’ privilege, and enjoys “disrupt[ing] the social order” (337). Frankie’s dissatisfaction with the status quo begins when her mother refuses to allow her to walk alone into town near the beach where her family vacations. This dissatisfaction grows when she recognizes that she is smarter than the popular senior boys at her school, though she lacks the social power—as a young woman—to win their respect and loyalty.

Frankie is highly intelligent, and her ambition grows as she understands the power the Bassets’ secret society has at its disposal: She realizes that she can use the society to critique the patriarchal administration and values of their elite school and society. She becomes painfully aware of the double standards that convert “brilliance” in a man to “psychosis” in a woman.