Marc Mitchell The New Girl Analysis

Improved Essays
The New Girl by Marc Mitchell

In this essay I will write a brief summary of the short story “The New Girl”, written by Marc Mitchell, an author from Florence, Alabama. I will continue by characterizing the narrator and discuss the reasoning behind Allison’s behaviour and narrator’s response (which will be included in his characterisation).

The story takes place on Prospect Street, a white, lower-middle-class neighbourhood, where there are old houses aplenty. It’s a hot, bright day, and Allison, the narrator’s best friend, and the narrator were the only kids on the block. Therefore they were best friends ‘by default’, as he puts it. Allison is 10 and the narrator is 8, he looks up to Allison. We are informed that the children spent their Summer riding their bikes, playing board-games and pretending to be married, although the narrator doesn’t know if Allison actually likes him, or if he actually liked her. But of course, there was no-one else to play with. The story continues with the narrator telling us that the story is a memory of a conversation that he will never forget. The narrator spies a younger girl in the middle of the road on her bike, and concludes that she and her family must have just moved in the newly available house across the street from Allison’s. The narrator almost collides with Allison and looks up to see the new girl standing before him. He grins at the smiling girl and says hi. Allison stops and says, “Get out of here, nigger,” to which the girl just
…show more content…
He is more likely male as single-sex marriages were frowned upon at the time the story takes place (one must presume the story takes place in the 80’s/early 90’s as we are told Allison listens to Hall and Oates, a popular pop-duo at that time). He looks up to Allison but isn’t sure if he really likes her. We can see he looks up to her by the fact that he copies her actions and does what he presumes she expects of him in front of the new girl, but the fact that he doesn’t dare look at her eyes shows that he has a guilty feeling/is ashamed, and doesn’t quite feel that what they’re doing is right. The fact that he doesn’t stand up for himself shows that he is a bit of an underling, and is possibly afraid to stand up against her. He doesn’t say anything negative about Allison, only that he isn’t really sure if they are actually friends, hinting to the fact that they may only be friends for the sake of having a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Lauren Slater Analysis

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Ever wonder when there is someone in need of help and want to help he/she/them out, such as a stranger, but were too scared, nervous, or even had to wait until someone else gets involved in order to help? In this chapter, “In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing” by Lauren Slater, from the book Opening Skinner’s Box, takes us to a bizarre psychological behavior that involves the help of others or groups. In this area, we get to see how people react when a stranger is in a need of help during a distressed situation. Ask yourself the question what should I do?…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kaitlyn Stewart Analysis

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sandra “Kaitlyn” Stewart 1. Isaiah 53 God is communicating that as Christ was growing up He was the lowest of the lows. He was despised and rejected; God’s wrath fell down upon Him because of our sins. Although Christ was innocent, He was pierced for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. We are healed through His undeserving wounds.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrator’s feelings of empathy and sympathy that he has for his student are due to him being able to relate to the pain of the world they will encounter as young African American men who will often be oppressed solely based on the color of their skin. The suffering the narrator speaks about is one in which racism is inherited for generations before. The narrator makes a bold statement in regards to racism which he has the narrators mother explains how white men who were drunk murdered her brother in- law. This is a bold statement because she could simply state that her brother in law was murdered but the for the writer to include murdered by white men he was trying to state this message. She is trying to warn the narrator that this could potentially happen which is an indication that racism is still a very real threat to her…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrator continues with guidelines that vary depending on whether or not the girl you want to date is an “insider or an outsider” to “the Terrace,” a poor area in which the narrator lives. These instructions consist of racial stereotypes and the hiding of one's true identity in order…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By demonstrating Jessie’s transformation from an innocent child to a grown man who is sexually aroused by racial violence, Baldwin shows how family ties and traditions can encourage and exacerbate this problem. Many white people during the Jim Crow Era in which the story takes place held a fundamental belief that they were the superior race, leading them to band together against blacks, fearful of and disgusted by this different race while also fetishizing their sexuality. By exploring the racist mindset of a white sheriff in the years following the Civil War, Baldwin seeks to understand the racism that lingers into his own…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In this chapter the author combines racism, sex, and violence while depicting the stories of Lorraine and Theresa. Lorraine was the sensitive school teacher who was always worried about what others thought about her sexuality while Theresa was the dominant one in their relationship who cared less of that others thought of her or her sexuality. The neighbors of Brewster Place did not have a problem the lesbian couple probably because they were not interested in men, except Sophie who had an issue with the lifestyle they lived, Sophie also a resident started a campaign due to her insecurities and frivolous ways. As gossip spreads about Lorraine and Theresa,“Well, the people in this building and on the street. No one hardly speaks anymore.…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He starts by describing the way he was feeling on the bus. When then he saw a Baltimorean looking straight at him. The speaker then goes on to state that he was eight years old at the time and that the other boy was not any bigger. The speaker, trying to be kind, smiled at the other boy, but the speaker did not receive a smile in return. Instead, the boy called him a “Nigger.”…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrator, a poor and hungry African-American man, is approached on the street by "another colored fellow that looks hongry" (253). The stranger describes his idea of making some money, which entails that they rob one of the rich white men exiting a bar on the street (253). To persuade the narrator into joining him, he provides moral justification for the act with words of their unfair treatment by such people: " '. . . [they] comes up to Harlem spendin' forty or fifty bucks in the night clubs and speakeasies and don't care nothin' 'bout you and me out here in the street, do they?' " (254).…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Darren Mitchell Analysis

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Though they are both very different, the songs “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede and “A Quick Exit” by Darren Mitchell can be broken down into their musical elements and easily compared. The elements that are most apparent in these two songs are rhythm, melody, harmony, and dynamics. Both pieces use these same elements, but in different ways, which produce the different songs that we hear. Also since these songs are different genres, there will be distinct differences between how they convey each element.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The old neglected house on a side street in the oldest part of the town was Abigail’s affordable dream. The house was perfect how could she thank her Grandmother a woman she never met, but who has offered her a chance to inhabit a new life away from the torment and excitement that has been surrounding her for the past couple of years. The abandoned empty old fashioned house looked lifeless, cold and dejected. It had been boarded up for years its neglected, lonely appearance fuelled gossips.…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author is showing the reader that she felt embarrassed but she wasn't gonna let her “friend” and teacher be disrespectful to her like that. This quote are in this essay because you're teacher are suppose to help you defend you not call you a ¨little nigger” there suppose to help you because there someone you could count on. The next essay is going to be about racism and about speaking up even if you are…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On The Movie Crash

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages

    John had been driving nearby, but he had no idea who was in the car. Once he crawled into the flipped car, he saw the black women that he had molested. “No! Get away from me!” “Not you,” said Christine. “Lady, I’m trying to help” “I’m not going to hurt you,” said Officer John Ryan.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Her favorite childhood memory was when Cole was giving her an art lesson, and she told him that she really liked him. He responded “I like you too” causing Allison to have a crush on him ever since. Currently a senior at Cherry Blossom High School she attends with her best friend…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cruelty and maybe some jealousy is used as theme for the author in “All Summer in a Day.” Children can be cruel is a statement shown throughout the story using descriptive language and similes. Children can be cruel is shown with descriptive language of how, why, and what children were being cruel about. In “All Summer in a Day” Margot being the main character is the one going through tall the cruelty that children can have. Showing how in “All Summer in a Day” children…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    and Mama bought the new house in a white neighborhood. When Mama bought the house the rest of the family did not like that it was in a white neighborhood because they would have been the only blacks. Also a man called Mrs. Lindner came over and tried to persuade them from moving into the white neighborhood by saying, “It is a matter…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays