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Comparing Characters: A Walk to the Jetty and Boys and Girls

Uploaded by schoolblows on May 04, 2007

Comparing Characters in A Walk to the Jetty and Boys and Girls


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.


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...

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Uploaded by:   schoolblows

Date:   05/04/2007

Category:   Literature

Length:   4 pages (798 words)

Views:   9903

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