Characters are the lifeblood of conventional fiction. The most exciting plot will fail to engage your readers if your characters are flat. Instead, you want to write complex characters, and help your readers truly get to know them. Complex characters are not merely “interesting’ people; making a character complex is not simply giving them a variety of personality characteristics, or adding “quirks.’ Complex characters display a wide range of emotions. They have inner lives that grow and change. They have unique dreams, nightmares, and memories. They have traumas and other vulnerabilities that affect their thinking and behaviors. As Maass says in Chapter 4 of the Emotional Craft of Fiction (your assigned chapter for the week),
The columns and beams of your novel [or short story] are your protagonist’s twin journeys: outer and inner. The outer element, your plot, holds up the novel’s structure, like columns hold up a skyscraper. What lends a novel a feeling of depth, perspective, and movement across space, though, are its crosswise beams: your protagonist’s inner journey.
Complex characters can be people you don’t like. I find the narrator of Carver’s “Cathedral’ to be an unlikable person generally. He is somewhat unkind, ungenerous and rude; he is apathetic and superficial in his thinking. Worse, he is prejudiced against blind people and African-Americans. Yet, he grows subtly across the story, and at the end we see a shift in his character during an epiphanic moment, one that reveals another side to his character, makes him more complex. Sometimes the strongest characters and character journeys are the ones you don’t personally relate to: characters who are fundamentally different from you, characters who further a worldview you find immoral, characters you would never be friends with in real life, characters who make choices with which you disagree, characters who are imperfect under pressure, etc. As Maass points out,
Writing fiction with emotional effect requires feeling easy with uneasiness….In life, our moods swing. We contradict ourselves. We act out of character. We act out. Why then is it so hard to allow characters to do the same? We all swing between the polarities inside us. We second-guess ourselves, judge ourselves, have insight into ourselves, gain from hindsight, and make intuitive leaps. We also blunder ahead, ignore warnings, fail to think before speaking, dive in, reverse course, dance in the end zone, throw up our hands, throw punches when we shouldn’t, and walk away when we should hold firm and take a stand.
And,
An opening that involves the kitchen sink, a flat tire, or changing diapers should be a sure bet for bonding readers to protagonists then, right? Well, no. Of course it’s not. Humdrum, everyday life is recognizable but not radioactive. Paradoxically, though, we can bond with characters completely unlike ourselves.
Thus, you must beware the trap of “relatability,’ and/or perhaps expand your idea of what that word means. In “The Scourge of Relatability,’ your other craft-focused reading for today, Rebecca Mead argues that there is a value in art that creates feelings of alienation or difference, that forces you to identify with characters to which you don’t immediately “relate.’ Like Mead, when I teach undergraduate creative writing, I often find that students value “relatability’ above all else. For example, they say that they enjoyed a story because a character was “relatable,’ meaning that they should see themselves in the character, or that the narrative was “relatable,’ meaning it has happened or could happen to them. But sometimes it is highly productive and rewarding for a reader to feel uneasy or uncomfortable, or to enter the mind of a person in which they recognize little, if any, of themselves, or to empathize with someone they might avoid in ‘real life.’ As we continue through the fiction unit, I want you to more carefully consider the benefits and limitations of “relatability’ in fiction, as well as to consider your own definition of “relatable.’
You have two stories to consider for your reading response today. Discuss characterization in either “Cat Person” or “Lawns.’ How does the author create a female protagonist that is alive and complex (if you believe she is)? What is an example of successful characterization from the text, i.e., a craft decision the writer made that made the character more alive or complex for you, and why is it so successful for you? Even if you do not immediately relate to these protagonists, do you find some aspects of their lives or characters “relatable’ and does this make you more inclined to enjoy the story?
Sarah corbett
I’m going to respond to ‘cat person’. I was both made uncomfortable by this article, while also relating to it. Having worked through multiple bad relationships, both short and long, I felt like I was looking in a disturbingly accurate mirror.
I was uncomfortable because it was so accurate. Her descriptions of her issues with Robert were hauntingly close to situations I’ve been in, and it was painful to read through something so close to my own uncomfortable experiences.
I related to it though because these WERE my experiences. No matter how uncomfortable they were, I’ve been in the narrators shoes.
For example: The moment when our narrator questions herself when it comes to breaking up with Robert is something I’ve been faced with. I always would feel guilty, even with short relationships, because I felt like the issue must be me – because the guy didn’t technically do anything wrong.
Or: The moment when narrator didn’t want to cut the sexual interaction short because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, even though she was repulsed by him, is a crappy position I’ve had to deal with as well. She worried whether or not she would be murdered by this guy, and I can’t tell you how many times I worried about that on first, second, and even third dates.
Men like Robert, who I refer to generically as neckbeards, tend to think that women owe them something simply for being nice. Neckbeards will often not doing anything that you could put a name to, but will put you off from them; and when you are no longer interested they will claim they were so nice, and they will place the blame on you. This tactic is shown very clearly at the end, with the repetitive texts that simply ended with ‘whore.’
It was this honest monologue that our narrator had that drew me into her character. Because she is me.
The most powerful moment for me was towards the end, when she is ushered out of the bar. She thinks to herself that she must be being mean, he didn’t hurt her, but she really did feel upset and sick at seeing Robert. Why is that? Why does she feel bad for having her friends get her out of the situation if she is truly uncomfortable? Because if he confronted her, and demanded to know what he did wrong, she couldn’t really name anything. She would stutter, embarrassed, guilty, because he didn’t hit her, didn’t yell at her; he was sweet, thoughtful… and also creepy. But she can’t put that creepiness into words.
Having been in that position, having dated my own handful of Roberts, I know that that inability to name the issue makes you feel like a piece of crap. Because what did they do wrong? They insist you owe them an explanation, and when you can’t come up with the words, then you are the issue. You are the whore who didn’t love a nice a guy.
Jewel Blanchard
For this week’s reading response, I chose to read Cat Person by Kristin Roupenian. The author of Cat Person does an excellent job of creating a female protagonist who is complex by writing about what is happening in the story but then how the female protagonist feels and what she is thinking/wishing was happening instead of what was really happening. The author does well at balancing that. What made the female protagonist, Margot, in Cat Person, more complex and alive for me was this line here.. “ “A date,” she said to her imaginary boyfriend. “He called that a date.” And they both laughed and laughed.” This was when she was wrapping up her night with the guy she went to the movies with. I think this was so successful, the imaginary boyfriend, because it goes to show what she was thinking in the midst of the action. Her picturing herself years later telling her imaginary boyfriend about this “one time” gave it more depth. Though I don’t relate to the story, Cat Person, the way the author writes about Margot’s experience, sharing Margot’s thoughts and feelings, I was highly inclined to read more and feel for Margot. Margot is relatable through her thoughts and that is what made me enjoy reading this short story.
Nadia Finley
Here, I am responding to “Lawns,” by Mona Simpson. The main character, Jenny I think is her name, actually does feel like a real person. In fact, I had to remind myself that I was reading fiction. Simpson wrote “Lawns” as if it were coming straight from Jenny’s mouth, giving us casual phrases like “I don’t know,” and filler words like “right.” The phrasing feels personal and so do the thoughts. It isn’t until around halfway through the story that we learn about her messed up family dynamics, yet we still feel her acceptance of “I’m bad” throughout the first half of the piece. We are subtly brought into her personal emotional life, drawn on by her unique inner thoughts and outer expressions. She reads the “good” group of kids’ mail, and we feel her both yearn for and laugh at the concern they have for each other. We hear her call her true self unworthy of Glenn. We watch as she emits exasperation and resentment towards her mother. We listen to her internally lambaste her father, his posture, his character. We are drawn into the deeper story through the feelings Jenny has and acts out in. Why? Why does she do that? Why does she think that?
Personally, I cannot relate to Jenny as a character. I was almost furious about her stealing mail. Just think of the people who won’t be hearing from those who wrote them (or sent them cookies!). I do not have a room mate, or a boyfriend, or an abusive father. It was only once I read through the whole story that I understood why she views and treats her parents with such contempt and disrespect. The lens Jenny sees the world through is alien to me.
Did the alienation make me chew on the story? Certainly. It all stunned me. I had to come back and reread “Lawns” to understand what really was going on in the deeper narrative. The story of longing for a different life and of searching for actual, selfless love in a world of lust. For me, the “relatable” part of “Lawns” was the search for quiet acceptance, peace, love, and joy. Though these are the things I recognized, it was Jenny’s relationship with her family that had me pondering. Why, why, why?
The scene that stood out to me the most was the where Jenny is leaving for the hotel room with her father. She hears the tennis players and wishes that she could have their life, that she could be a new person. I felt her longing to be someone, anyone, else. That hurt. She felt like a living, breathing human, and it hurt to see her pain.
Sure, “Lawns” got me thinking. And I’m still thinking on it. Why would some one write about something so twisted. I feel sorry for Jenny. I’m glad that those things never happened to her, that she couldn’t actually feel those painful emotions because she isn’t real. Though, I guess the true impact always was meant to happen on this end of the page.
Johnny Bishop
So the story that really captured my attention was Cat Person. The writer goes in such depth with the characterization that it absolutely seemed so real for the moment. I think the a good example of characterization is when she describes Robert at the beginning of the story. It made it very easy to picture. For me the outline of the story I can completely relate to 100%. Ironically the man that I did regret doing anything with was named Robert but he went by Bobby. So I could fully relate to how the protagonist was feeling when she decided to do what she did. The outcome for me was about the same because I couldn’t talk to him much after everything that happened and he and his family basically thought I was nothing but a whore so after reading this story all those memories came back but I’ve learned to remember that only MY opinion matters not everyone else’s. I did enjoy reading it but one thing is for sure if I don’t ever have to read it again I won’t.
Miranda Reynolds
I was drawn to “Cat Person” by Roupenian because I felt like I could really understand what was going on inside Margot’s head. I think that this large display of the character’s internal struggle was what really made me enjoy the complexity of her character.
I am convinced also that a story situation does not necessarily have to be relatable for a character to feel relatable. For example, I have never been in much of a romantic relationship, therefore, I have never been in Margot’s position of trying to decide if I should break up and being in a vicious circle of feeling guilty for doing it. But even so, I have been in a position where I have felt horribly guilty for having done something I regretted to someone I know. I think in this way, Roupenian makes Margot relatable not in the situation she is going through (dating insecurity) or the type of person she is (twenty-year-old average college student), but in the way that she showcases the inner struggle so vividly that the reader has no trouble imagining the despair and guilt Margot must be feeling.
I think that having this emotional depth makes Margot that much more interesting to read about because she is letting the reader in on the insecurity she feels and allowing them to experience the struggle with her. I also think that Roupenian does a fantastic job putting the ideas of “Emotional Craft of Fiction” into her character arc to make the overall story flow better. Maass gives the advice of having the plot (i.e., story structure) play off the internal struggle (character structure/arc) so that neither feels flat nor takes over. One intriguing characterization choice that accomplishes this is the texting between the two characters. In the beginning, the texts reflect Margot’s need to have someone that cares about her. She is anxious when he does not respond instantly and instigates new threads of conversation to feel connected. Then, when Margot realizes she is not attracted to Robert, the texts reflect her personal guilt because she knows he really did nothing wrong. And finally, as she tries to move on with her life but cannot stop thinking about him, his texts to her reflect that inability to let go. Roupenian’s craft choice enhanced the emotional struggle of Margot by adding Robert’s thoughts and feelings as the reaction/effect, which made both characters more exciting to me and helped the plot flow better based on the internal arc, and not just because an event was ‘supposed’ to happen.
Adeline Knavel
I decided for this week’s reading response I was going to read “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian. I was drawn into this story because of the way the author uses characterization in her writing. She goes into such depth in the way she describes her characters in her story that it felt so real to me. One example of characterization is at the beginning of the story when she describes Robert, “he was tall, on the heavy side, his beard was a little too long” which allowed for me to picture him in real life. Kristen Roupenian does a great job at writing and creating a female protagonist, she does this by writing about what is happening in the story and how Margot feels throughout the story. I did enjoy reading this short story by Kristen Roupenian, her character Margot was a relatable person through her thoughts and actions. I could relate to her when she says “flirting with her customers was a habit she’d picked up back when she worked as a barista, and it helped with tips”, I sometimes find myself flirting with my customers to make extra tips. I think what made me enjoy reading this short story the most was how I could relate with Margot on her feelings and actions throughout the story.
Ainsley Smith
I decided to read “Lawns” by Mona Simpson. Even though the story is fiction, I truly believed that Jenny was a really person. When reading through the story, especially learning about her scarring past, I need to take a moment and tell myself that this story is not real. The author wrote the story in first person, which really helped me believe that Jenny was alive in the flesh.
She is a very complex character. We learn that she is a 4.0 student, studying chemistry in college, has her “dream” boyfriend, etc. Although, when we reach the half-way mark in the story, we learn more about her background. We see that she was taken advantage of at a young age and that it continued to carry throughout her life. Simpson writes in the text, “I’m a bad person…he thinks he loves me and I’ve got to keep him from finding out about me.” At first, I was under the impression Jenny was referring to her stealing, but I later learn she is also referring to her troubled past. She viewed herself as unworthy for a “perfect” guy like Glenn, as if she was the one to blame.
Jenny seems so complex due to little smidgens of her personality we see in the beginning. At first, we have no idea why she views her parents with so much disrespect and contempt. At first, we have no idea why she ridicules every step, word, and action her father takes. We don’t understand why she resents her mother in the beginning. It felt almost like a mystery. What could have happened for her to hold so much hatred in her heart? Once you read the second half of the text, the connections line up perfectly and everything becomes clear.
I have had my shares of regrets, my shares of heartbreaks, and I am constantly yearning for acceptance within any crowd, very similar to Jenny. Even with friends, family, or with my team, I will hold back pieces of myself in order to feel accepted for who I am. I felt like Jenny portrayed similar behavior, especially with such a dark past. I do not relate to her based on the actions she has taken or the parental figures in her life. I am lucky to have great parents in my life with amazing siblings. I do not steal from people, especially personable things like someone’s words and feelings. Personally, I was not fond of that activity. I thought it was distasteful, especially in the beginning when I had little context about her.
Christy Barrett
In response to Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian, the main character, Margot, was absolutely believable as a 20 year old sophomore in college. Her thoughts and reactions are completely aligned with how I feel someone that age with that amount of life experience would respond in a situation like this. She was definitely relatable, as embarrassing as it is to admit now that I am so far away from my twenties… that feeling of not being attracted to a man, but being attracted to his attraction to you. And viewing men as so vulnerable, actually believing you have the power to hurt them (or shatter them like glass, as she puts it) with laughter… this is such an immature characterization that any woman who was once twenty, I’m sure can relate to. I think many young women feel powerful in response to an older man’s attraction to them. I felt like this just hit the nail on the head. And that ending was crazy but believable. I don’t know how many men would actually react that way, but it happens, no doubt. Great story that encapsulates a twenty-year old woman’s mentality of exploration, power and immaturity.
Curtis Wolfe
I decided to read Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian. The way the writer wrote about characterization in such depth really pulled me in. One example of her characterization was the way she described Robert, it was easy to mold an image of him while reading along. I think that anyone who has been in a romantic relationship would find “Cat Person” very relatable. The way she also described the flirting with someone you’re not really attracted to, but you do it anyways for your own benefit was also relatable. As a mans perspective, I have done that and have also had it done to. There was a lot that I found relatable that I never really gave much thought about. But nothing as extreme as what she went through. Cat Person grabbed my attention in some spots, but in other spots not so much.
Devin Byrd
Simpson’s piece is broken into roughly cut sections, each starting and ending rather abruptly, and crashing into one another without much of any kind of smooth transition. I believe the story’s discordant flow represents the main character’s own chaotic mind.
Throughout the piece the main character takes actions and has emotional outbursts that go unexplained at first due to a combination of lack of context and lacking explanation of the character’s motivations, but as the narrative progresses, it becomes clear that the main character’s actions and desires are just as chaotic as they appear, and that she doesn’t understand them either.
As more information and context is provided, the character transitions from being a infuriatingly self-centered and selfish rat in the eyes the reader, to more of a crazed, injured animal, acting out due to a combination of pain and lack of understanding. By the end of the story the character’s actions still don’t make sense, but her reasons for doing them and her volatility are for more understandable, and she is far more pitiable.
I enjoyed the way in which Simpson delivered details about the character and her history. Immediately dumping all the information at the beginning would’ve made the story far less interesting, and would’ve less effectively conveyed the nature of the main character’s mind.
Kyleigh McArthur
I’m going to respond to “Lawns” because it seemed like a more relatable story to me, even if I can’t relate to it. Reading through the story and listening to Jenny describe her life was unfortunately very relatable to a lot of girls and young women. At first I thought there was no reason for her to steal and for her to be taking all that mail, but I realized there was a reason for this. Jenny had to grow up in a broken family, a father that took advantage of her innocence, a mother unaware of it all, and a brother that was pushed to the side. Her father had been touching her since she was little and raping her since she was 12. She didn’t know any better when she was little, and by the time she got to college, she was uncomfortable with the situation her father was putting her in. Her father even confessed that he was in love with her, how is a child, a daughter supposed to respond to that? Jenny copes with this by stealing. She steals home made cookies and likes to read about families and I’m assuming this is because she wishes she had a normal family as well. It’s so common for people who are dealing with some kind of trauma or toxic relationship to find their happiness with something else. I feel for Jenny, the story made me feel for Jenny.
Ta'Mariah Jenkins
After reading both stories, I decided to communicate on Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian, I can honestly say that I’m so shocked and so interested in the female protagonist and Robert characters. Describing the short story in the female protagonist’s eyes was a story well done. I feel like personally, I couldn’t tell whether I liked the female protagonist. Though I found her character bothersome, she also portrayed a person living more at the moment and basing decisions on feelings instead of reason. I find it noticeable that neither Robert nor the female protagonist ever has the upper hand. Like there isn’t really control of a relationship or that either wants another so bad. The female protagonist in the story mentions how the thought of him wanting her brings “a fantasy of pure ego”, but throughout the date, you can tell the anxiousness she feels when he’s not showing her much attention and how she has the gnawing feeling to sleep with him, in order for him to want her more. This story really brings out the concept and difference between consensual, but then going too far and you just can’t stop. The author points out signs of the night and the warnings of the character such as his kissing, his outfit, and the physical appearance. Moreover, the doubt if he is a murderer or not. The continuation of the female protagonist wanting to go further with this guy, kind of explains the notion of wanting someone that doesn’t want you in my opinion. The more they pine for you, the more your ego and self-worth grows. However, when a person tends to lose interest, you do things in order to get those feelings of self-worth and ego back. Moreover, as soon as you lose attraction towards them, there’s a distance and lost interest in them and you want to getaway. That was what I saw in the female protagonist.
Gabriel Miller
In “Cat Person,” there’s very effective subtle characterization of Robert through the mounting passing details that reveal him to be a social misfit. With the first introduction of him, he already fails to realize that Margot is flirting, and he continues to misread situations all the way until he stalks her in the bar. There are lots of points that make him out as child like and naïve such as the glow stars and his clear lack of experience in bed which outright contrasts his age and looks. Besides there being obvious parallels to the incel trope, like having sloping shoulders and being creepy and demanding to women while when being a “nice guy” fails, these small details make him a more nuanced character than he would have been otherwise.
Margot is definitely less characterized due to the nature of the story, because as the title implies the focus on Robert. Her main elements of characterization are her reactions to Robert, specifically her shift into leaving him out of disgust. This also shows her character development and personality, as when she tries to not hurt Robert she shows values on kindness as well as passivity. I think that the way her perspective is told makes her not that complex because it’s pretty straight forward to want to balance your values with someone else’s feelings.
I think that Margot’s situation is relatable as I’ve already said, but besides that, I don’t relate to it the story. I haven’t been in or much wanted a relationship before, so I don’t like or particularly care about stories about people meeting up, whether it end well or not. It’s honestly something that I rather don’t like in stories because a lot of the time it feels superficial or boring.
Andrew Sheets
I read “Cat Person” and loved it– I consider myself a connoisseur of cringe, and the further I read the worse it got, much to my delight. The uncomfortable situations in and of themselves were absolutely a source of good cringe– but because the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings were always on display to the reader, knowing her internal dialogue made her feel alive and complex. As a straight male I have no clue what it’s like to have uncomfortable sex with a neckbeard, but knowing how much the protagonist loathed Robert’s cheesy porno-esque dialogue– thinking to herself “This is the worst life decision I have ever made!” Really put me in her shoes while simultaneously developing her character’s personality. It’s successful characterization because I’m exposed to her obvious discomfort in a direct, vicarious manner rather than an implied, more indirect manner.
Surprisingly, I could immediately relate to the protagonist– we have nearly identical internal dialogue, and I can relate to the situational awkwardness since we’re both awkward, naïve, college students. I’m probably not alone, either. The author was certainly channeling some of their past experiences– experiences that are ubiquitous among those in my age demographic. This made the story more relatable to me and thus more enjoyable.
Katie Hopper
This is not an inherently interesting story as I’m sure you could ask any 20-something girl if something like this has happened to them and they would unfortunately reply yes. It read eerily like memories of my own, lending it on the brink of boring but keeping you hooked. There are moments where I recognized it bordering on some scourge of relatability, but what makes readers stay into it is the way we are carried through the tiny moments that make up a scene and without these details the tale would have fell flat. There are many moments where we’re led through her thoughts and feel as if we have her eyes and are paying close attention to body language, reading and reacting to it. There are many moments where she acts carefully around Robert and in doing so reveals her thoughtful side and shows that she really doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. At the end of the story, after her friend sends that text for her, we feel her uneasy guilt, remorse, and near longing.
Casey Fetterhoff
I am responding to “Cat Person” for this, and I think that to say the story is disturbing would be an understatement. That is, the truly disturbing part of it, is that it is so true for so many people, both men and women, every single day. This story has two particular qualities that stick out to me in building a fantastic female character for the narrative- Firstly, we see exclusively inside her head, and see not only what she feels, but what she WISHES she was feeling, giving us a deeper-than-real look into a character who is, for this story, fictional. Secondly, the perspective we see is entirely hers, and as readers we get a great look at the subjective terror the character must be feeling through this ordeal of emotions, with relatively little context regarding her friends, or the man in the story. While the story has many events, the central focus is always on Margot, her thoughts, her feelings, and what is happening to HER. Because, in truth, the story is about her! It’s not about the events themselves, or the man, or the experience, it’s about Margot and the emotions that this abusive encounter stirs within her-And the focus on Margot and her thoughts and feelings is what makes her such a powerful character, instead of just another name in a story with many names.
Timberly Kneebone
I read Cat Person by Kristin Roupenian. This story made me extremely uncomfortable because of how accurate the showed behavior is. I have been in relationships that have followed similar behaviors and it still sticks with me to this day. I felt as though someone had documented my personal experiences. The descriptions of the said behavior were extremely detailed to where I was able to almost relive and experience the story through my eyes. I feel like for this story to be well written it had to be through the woman’s perspective. I feel like although it was through the womens eyes I was still able to fully understand the males perspective. I may not have agreed with his behavior but I was able to understand why he thought he was justified.
The emotional depth of each of the characters made the story even more intriguing but just as much gut wrenching. I felt fully invested in the story and felt as though I was going through her emotions the entire time. I was able to feel the lust and regret through the short lived relationship. I really did love reading this piece. I don’t think I will ever read it again because of how personally haunting the memories it brought up for me were.
Zofia
I read Lawn. I love how she is not just cold-heartedly stealing mail and things and throwing away gifts and letters but at the same time she kind of is. But she cares, she cares about the letters and the stories that are in them, even if just for the high school drama that she never got in on before. She still cares, somehow, while being horribly cold and careless. She has mentioned multiple times that she didn’t want to wake her roommate. She seems very sociopathic. But I think I can relate a little bit, just like she reads the letter of the people she knows, I listen to conversations of people I know. At work or in class, I’m quiet and I keep to myself, they forget I’m there or just don’t care that I’m listening and talk about their lives and it’s like reading a personal letter they wrote to someone they care about. It’s an intrusive look into a life that maybe you wouldn’t otherwise get. I follow train wrecks I went to school with on social media just to silently watch them make dumb decisions and ruin their lives. It’s horrible, it’s horrible that it entertains me and I can’t get enough, but I see where she’s coming from, I get it. Her description of Glenn’s back being like cement around a pool is so palpable, it’s perfect, I know exactly what that feels like. She also has boundaries, so she’s not totally crazy, she doesn’t open or tamper with any of Glenn’s mail. She’s got compassion, and sociopathic tendencies, she’s a loaded dice. I think she’s relatable to all people.
Anna Johnson
I chose to read “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian. The author creates Margot who is the female protagonist in a few ways. The first being relatable for people even though I don’t feel that way in her thought process about sex and guys. She is young, in college, and likes to have a fun time. The author develops Margot through her perspective of the story, we see her emotions, feelings, and what she wants. She develops a crush on a guy who is somebody she might not typically go out with. Their relationship has a lot of humor and jokes to it, and they end up having sex. We see thoughts from Margot like being fearful of being raped and murdered and if Robert is even into her anymore after the break. When the reader knows more about a character and more of their complex thoughts we see a character with more depth. The character seemed so alive to me and complex because of how relatable the scenarios were and how we knew so much of her thoughts.
Even though I don’t relate to Margot’s choices, I am a college student, I am in my early twenties, and I have had crushes on guys. Specifically, when they were texting over spring break is when I related the most and that is when it is fun and exciting because all you want to do is talk and learn more about each other. I think something that can be more prominent in today’s time is girls being scared of being kidnapped or murdered, which is sad to relate to. The last relatable thing is the guy saying “whore” at the end of the story, which only says that guys don’t care at all. This was a story that I was tied into because of how relatable some parts were and how I felt worried at the end for Margot. I didn’t want the guy to become a stalker and a creep.