Lenore's Short Story

A shy girl named Lenore walked into her first class on the first day of high school. The only available seat was in the back of the classroom with a group of boys. The moment she sat down in that seat, she heard those boys mumble. She heard them saying that she was unattractive and would never be successful. Discouraged, Lenore put her head down on her desk in hopes that her classmates’ sexist comments would hush as the class continued to wait for the teacher to begin the lesson. Just like every year on the first day of school, the teacher called the role of students and asked them to respond by saying something about their personality and future career goals. When Lenore’s name was called, she said that she was interested in forensic science and criminology and wanted to be an FBI agent. She wanted to be a character like Agent Carter from Captain America or Gracie from Miss Congeniality. After saying that, the boys started to laugh and say that Lenore was punching over her weight and that women should never have occupations in such fields. The male students’ harsh comments about Lenore’s goals being unattainable motivated her to work harder than she thought she ever would to achieve them. She proved everyone, including herself wrong about …show more content…
However, she was greeted the same way she was greeted every day, only that day, one of the boys decided to grab a part of her in a vulgar way. Lenore had enough of being harassed by the boys in her class. She regretted spending her money on trying to change her appearance in order to be treated the same way she has always been treated. She read the second stanza of William Blake’s poem “A Poison Tree:” “And I watered it in fears,/Night and morning with my tears;/And I sunned it with smiles,/And with soft deceitful wiles.” Lenore let the insults from her male peers consume her to a point where she lost