Many teenagers suffer an identity crisis when they grow and become adult. In both short stories there are young girls who are enduring such an identity crisis. In other words, the two authors are relating experiences about the similar teenage problem of growing up, dealing with parental interference and change. This essay proposes that all young people grow up and go through some kind of identity crisis or another. This it aims to do through a brief comparison between the two stories.
Firstly, in the two stories, both of the main characters are young girls and they are in a situation they don’t want to be in. In other words, both of them are force to do something or hopes to do something by their family. In “Boys and Girls,” the main character says, “She (her mother) was plotting now to get me to stay and keep me from working for my father” (pg 50).
This partly explains her unhappy situation; she wants to work with her father, but her mother does not want her to. She listens to her mother and father talking about her, and she expresses her thoughts. Also, in “ Walk to the Jetty,” the main character, Annie John says, “I plan not only never to marry an old man but certainly never to marry at all” (88).
She does not want to be in the same situation as her mother – married to an older man, married at all. The two women tell their stories from first person point of view to explain their mind directly. They describe their situation almost completely through monologue. Using first person point of view makes it more personal, painful, identifiable, and this helps to reveal the character’s circumstances and their straightforward mind.
The Essay on Hero S Journey Charles Mother Story
In the short story A Visit to Grandmother by William Melvin Kelley a hero s Journey unfinished by the author, bring us into the world of a man who felt self pitying and blame his mother for the lack of love in his adolescence to a self confident and secure person at the end. In this world more care about money than people and more worry about small things than the family unit, brings people into ...
Secondly, the two stories deal with the issue of human nature. Both of the main characters are in adolescence, and have a similar problem, an identity crisis. The authors describe some conflict with their family, but their mothers in particular, to show how parental expectations and interference can make this crisis of identity deeper. Neither of the main characters has sufficient control or their own lives to solve their problem. This makes them more confused about what they want to be and who they are. At the end of the story “Boys and Girls,” her father says that “she’s only a girl”(59), and she thinks maybe her father is right. These things show that even she is not sure what is going on in her mind. Although she thinks that she wants to be like a boy, she is perhaps becoming like most of the other girls. In the other story “ Walk to the Jetty,” Annie John said, “I did not want to go to England, I did not want to be a nurse”(80).
However, she apparently felt she had to go to England in order to get away from her family. Such things suggest that neither of the characters is sure about their identity.
Thirdly, the isolated settings of the two stories significantly affect the problem that the two main characters are facing. The author of “Boys and Girls” uses a farm, which is far from a city, while the author of “A Walk to the Jetty” uses the Caribbean island of Antigua. A farm and an island are similar cut off from the outside world; in short, they can’t be easily influenced because the places are so isolated from many influences such as movies, magazines, and newspaper. In “Boys and Girls” the main character has only her parents. She does not have role models to give her some ideas for her future. In “A Walk to the Jetty,” she does not want to be her parents. But on the other hand, she also does not have an alternative model to get some idea of who she can become. Both of them have a lack of choices, they live in isolated places and can’t be changed such a limited place. In short, the setting helps establish the theme in both stories.
The Essay on Story Girl First Character
... deeper insight into the main character and how the events took place. I believe that the author's main character in the story could be described as ... having once been a teenager, can relate to the girl in the story. Although I didn't get drunk, I still recall my ... calls her best friend, who shows up with another girl and several boys, to help her with her situation. Before she was ...
Overall, the essay set out to briefly identify and describe not only the main theme, but also similarities between the two short stories. It found the common theme of female adolescent identity crisis to be molt prominent in both pieces and found the condition to have been accentuated by the sense of isolation felt by the authors. The reader left with the strong impression that there is little that either girl could have done to improve their lot. This suggests something about the nature of human being and about the struggle all young people go through before becoming who they want to be.
