Comparing 'Checkouts And The Girl Who Can'

Improved Essays
Comparing Girls
(An analysis of how the girl in “Checkouts” compares and contrasts to the girl in “The Girl Who Can”) The girls from the two stories “Checkout” and “The Girl Who Can” are alike in many ways yet also very unique to their perspective and how each story was wrote. In modern society girls constantly compare themselves to the other girls around them and desire to be similar to them and also want to be the best looking they can be. While there are those girls who compare themselves to each other, spotting differences and wanting to change them to become nearly the same person, there are those of us who notices the differences and enjoy our individuality. In the short stories, “Checkouts” and “The Girl Who Can”, the two girls are
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Adjoa bottles her thoughts up when she recalls not saying anything despite hearing her grandma and mom’s conversation about her legs. “When I think back on it now, those two, Nana and my mother must have been discussing my legs since the day I was born.” “The Girl Who Can” page 88. It can be perceived that Adjoa is ashamed of her legs since she has received an uncanny amount of criticism about her legs. The girl in the story “Checkouts” however is trapped in her mind for a similar reason with a different type of person. Although the girl isn’t being criticised she feels scared to talk or run into the bagger boy and just thinks about him constantly never actually talking to him. “And when finally they did meet up again, neither offered a clue to the other that he, or she, had been the object of obsessive thought for weeks.” “Checkouts” page 84. Both the girl and the boy silently deny that they had obsessively thought about one another and just kept their thoughts to themselves similar to the way Adjoa said nothing even though she knew they talked about her. It’s funny how in this world you can have a billion opinions on something yet when one particular person is in the room you suddenly feel scared to express your thoughts so we pretend they don’t

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