Daddy-Long-Legs

Jean Webster's Daddy-Long-Legs follows Jerusha Abbott, the oldest resident of the John Grier Home for orphans. Accustomed to caring for younger children and expecting an uncertain future, she learns that an anonymous member of the institution's board has recognized her writing ability. The benefactor, identified to her only as Mr. Smith, offers to pay for her college education on one condition: she must send him regular letters describing her studies and progress.

Jerusha nicknames the unseen man Daddy-Long-Legs after the elongated shadow she once glimpses. Her letters become the novel's central form, recording the movement from institutional life into a wider social and intellectual world. College introduces new friendships, books, customs, and class differences, and her lack of family history continues to shape how she understands belonging and independence.

Because the correspondence is largely one-sided, Jerusha writes with unusual freedom, mixing gratitude, irritation, humor, and self-examination. Her voice changes as she moves from freshman uncertainty toward a stronger sense of her own abilities and desires. The arrangement that makes her education possible also creates questions about obligation and the identity of the person directing her future from a distance. Daddy-Long-Legs uses the intimacy of letters to portray education as both academic growth and the gradual creation of an independent self.