Everygirl's Good Deeds: The Heroics of Nancy Drew

Abstract

Drawing on her own attachment to Nancy Drew and her reactions in her diary written when she was thirteen, Lundin suggests that Nancy Drew acted as her alter ego, a being who "inspired my imagination, literary ambitions, and ethical conscience." Despite being a fictional character in a series, Nancy Drew took on the trappings of the fifteenth-century allegory, allowing the child reader to test whether the world is a place to be trusted. Drew's benevolence and heroic deeds showed the possibilities of achievement for young women.