Wish You Well is a novel about the coming of age of its protagonist, Louisa Mae Cardinal, for many reasons. This young girl is forced to cope with drastic changes in her lifestyle within a short period of time, which forces her to become a more mature, independent person. Firstly, she is relocated to an environment completely opposite from her previous one. She also must adjust to her new role in her family, instead of being daddy's little girl, she must establish herself as a big sister and granddaughter. Lastly, she learns responsibility through her work and chores in her new household. Because of the extreme transformations in her life and her reactions to them, Wish You Well is the story of the coming of age of Lou.
In an extremely radical change from her previous lifestyle, Louisa must move to the country to live with her grandmother, whom she's never met. Before this, Lou lived in New York City, a grand, bustling city that never sleeps. Now she must adjust to an isolated farm on the mountains, where even a trip to town was rare. Rather than an organized, advanced school system packed with her peers, she attended a rudimentary one-room schoolhouse filled with kids of a variety of ages. Instead of a city filled with entertainment, here, one had to devise their own or take a journey to the nearest town. In her new home, money was no longer crucial, and not even the only form of currency. Virginia was a place where people got ahead by working hard, Lou had to learn. With the introduction of many new characters in such a basic place, Lou is forced to put more thought into examining and valuing others, including herself. Whereas Lou formerly assessed people by what they were, for example her saw her father as a writer, she began to see people for who they were.
After Lou and her brother moved to Virginia, she quickly found herself switching roles within the family. Although she had once been an established 'daddy's girl', the death of her father quickly altered that.
