One thing I really enjoyed about “Good with Boys” was the voice that the narrator had. She saw things in a way that appeared to be nonchalant and not boy-crazy yet she spent the whole trip thinking of Esau. I think it’s quite relatable to want to convince yourself that you aren’t getting your hopes up for something to happen yet putting every ounce of your brain power into following your premeditated plan for that something to happen. One line in particular really stood out to me as a window into the narrator’s psyche. On page 165 it says, “What was this broken mirror inside of me, that showed me I was ugly, showed me I was wrong, but persisted in its reflection that I was better than other people? Could low-self esteem loop all the way around and become narcissism?” This line just goes to show how self-aware the narrator can truly be if she tried, yet she spends the majority of the story ignoring that self-awareness. She focuses on the low self-esteem induced narcissism and finds herself in an Esau-obsessed spiral. Also, I find it interesting how the narrator views Esau and Adam’s relationship. Could it be that Esau is interested in Adam and thus the narrator’s jealousy is fueled by the fact that she isn’t what Esau will ever want? Or could it be that the narrator is confusing platonic and romantic attraction and is simply just upset that Esau is more comfortable with Adam? Or could it be a complete other interpretation of what is causing this giant rock of jealousy in the pit of the narrator’s stomach?
Something I appreciated about “Good With Boys,” was that throughout the majority of the story, the narrator seemed very much familiar with who she was and what she wanted. Her character was very clear and came across fluidly. For example, when she said, “Everyone talks about personality like it’s a bad thing but the fact is, without one, you’ve got nowhere to go but ugly.” In this quote it is very clear how the narrator is very firm in what she says and what she believes. She seems to see things one way and everything else blurs out of focus, as demonstrated throughout her pursuit of finding alone time with Esau. However, once the narrator saw Esau engaging with Adam, something seemed to shift in her attitude and she became defeated/disappointed and her low self-esteem made another appearance. Did the narrator see how effortlessly happy Adam and Esau were together and realize that the strategic plotting and strict motive-driven methods of interaction were not the only way or even the best way to accomplish her goal? This next quote, taking place after she witnessed Esau’s comfortability with Adam prompted my next question, “I studied Adam, trying to memorize him so that I could be more like him, look more like him.” In that moment, did the narrator realize that Adam seemingly being himself was the reason he was successful in making connections and did she hope to embody that outlook? Or on the other hand, did she lose faith in herself and suddenly decide that beauty was the important key to success and that she had failed?
One element of craft that I would like to highlight from “Good with Boys” is the dialogue, specifically the internal dialogue the main character Jill is having with herself. It would be a tall task for me to put myself back in the shoes of an elementary-level kid and be able to accurately describe some of the things going on in their minds, but I think the author does a good job at doing so in this story. I believed that what I was reading was from the perspective of a young girl in elementary school. Dialogue was important in accomplishing this. The way that Jill thinks about boys as well as the silly things she does in an attempt to get their attention have a very childlike and innocent way about them. The author’s ability to convey this through her writing and dialogue is impressive and definitely stood out to me when I read the story. Jill’s internal dialogue when thinking about the connection that Esau and Adam have is very important to the story. It shows how Jill does not yet fully understand how relationships work and how people interact. She is jealous of how close Adam is to Esau and thinks that if she can be more like Adam she can have a similar relationship. The writer here is smart about the ways she shows the character’s youth and innocence, showing instead of telling.
One thing I really enjoyed about “Good with Boys” was the way the author voiced the narrator. I felt as though the narrator had a certain level of character that came across very well within her thoughts. I really liked how the reader could hear her obsession with this boy, Esau, when in her reality she was trying to play it off cool or like she wasn’t crazy about him. The way she spoke was very easy to follow along and interact with, while also being captivating in the sense of you finding yourself being able to almost feel the anxiety that she feels in certain scenarios, and I found that very interesting.
I was not the biggest fan of this short story. While I liked the idea of it, to me, this story felt unbelievable. It’s not absurd to think that kids in elementary school know about love and the whole boys and girls or boys and boys or girls and girls thing, but to think about it to that extent just seemed falsified to me. As for the element of craft I chose to focus on, I was thinking a lot about character development as I read this story, specifically about Jill’s development. As soon as I started reading, I wanted her to get better, to realize she seemed a little too boy crazy and was making silly choices, which she really didn’t. She did at one point admit that she was acting a little too aggressive and it was embarrassing, but I feel like she didn’t really develop past this. I’d believe that if this story continues, she’ll just find another boy to obsess over and the cycle will repeat again and again until she gets old enough to truly understand the implications of crushes and love. However, I do find the slight development or lack thereof, true. No one at Jill’s age will truly be able to just change how they view things in a night, so I’m glad that the author didn’t give Jill some big life changing epiphany. If anything, she had a small one, which was definitely a lot more believable given how old Jill is supposed to be.
In this story I really liked the internal voice of the main character. I really liked being able to hear her rationale and thoughts when she is doing things within the story. She gives a lot of detail and commentary on what is happening on this field trip the students are on. I also really liked the way she describes herself and her relationship and love for boys. She is honest to the readers about how much she likes boys and exactly what she does to be able to have many boys in her back pocket, it is a very fun touch on the story that adds a childish value to the story. It develops Jill’s character a lot and lets you truly see what she’s doing and why she is doing things. It was just a really good addition to the story itself.
Something I very much enjoyed about “Good with boys” was the voice of the narrator/main character as well as her development as a character. Her voice in the story seemed very mature for an elementary school kid, but I really liked it. I think the maturity helped sort out the uncertainty in the thoughts she was having because as a kid you don’t have a huge grasp on concepts like having a crush or you dont understand some of the social situations you’re put in. I really liked the way the narrator was working through those scenarios in her head while also maintaining the thought process a kid would have of just trying to get what they want no matter what happens.Throughout the story Jill is trying to grapple with the fact that she has a huge crush on this boy, but they’re also going to have a sleepover in a museum (which is a huge thing for a kid I’m very jealous I never did this). Jill is trying every which way to get closer to Esau and spend more time with him, but having so many obstacles in her way made it really hard and that frustrated her. I also really enjoyed the ending where she was just overlooking Esau and Adam and trying to take comfort in Sarah as the butterflies were released. The fact that she ended the story by getting distracted from the “pain” because of the butterflies was really beautiful to me. Having such huge emotions to go through and not being able to regulate them is hard enough, but still having childlike wonder over simple butterflies is awesome.
I didn’t love this story. I think there were a lot of inconsistencies and that the ending didn’t connect well enough to the events that played out in the story. However, what I found most interesting and liked the most was the tone of our narrator. She is very blunt with her internal dialogue with herself, as though we’re getting an unfiltered stream of her thoughts – We definitely always know exactly what she’s thinking. I think that this allows us to feel her frustration throughout the story. She never ends up getting what she wanted the whole time.
But I think the author is also trying to show the audience through this blunt tone that no, her thoughts aren’t necessarily normal for her age nor are they particularly accepted. The other girls were wondering why she was on the other side of the room, described thinking the boys were going to try to be “weird”, and constantly questioned where she was. I just don’t think the author picked one message to really emphasize in the story, so it was difficult to pick out what the overall point was for me. Yes, we know our character is definitely boy-crazy and self-reflective and has some self-esteem issues that she externalizes as seeking attention from boys, but why? What is the point? Why is the last sentence of this story about the butterflies and hurting when that didn’t seem to be the main focus of the story at all?
One element of craft that really stood out to me from “Good With Boys” is the dialogue. Moreso, the dialogue between the characters, specifically between the elementary students stood out to me. Throughout the story, we get to hear the conversion between Jill, and her fellow classmates. It was endearing to hear the way the students spoke to one another. Considering that they are elementary students, they tended to speak with more of a dramatic tone, and would exaggerate what they were saying. I can remember the days back to when I was in elementary school and all the kids would say something out of the ordinary, or they would do something they weren’t supposed to do, like how Jill, Esau, and Adam snuck off to see the dinosaurs. Another thing that I would like to point out that stood out to me was the inner dialogue Jill was having with herself throughout the story. It seems like she was having an internal debate with herself on how to grab the attention of Esau, the boy she admires. Jill is written to be boy crazy, which makes her want to do things that will hopefully grab his attention, like trying to sleep next to him, and wanting to be like Adam. At the end of the story, it leaves Jill with having some inner dialogue expressing that she knows what she’s doing and how boy crazy she is, but it doesn’t leave much room for her change.
I feel a little torn over “Good with Boys”. On one hand, the voice and the development (or lack thereof) the narrator, Jill, was interesting. I’m not certain how old the school kids are, but I’m assuming that they’re in middle school, probably around 8th grade, so it makes sense that Jill is interested in boys. Even if she admits that she knows her crush on Esau won’t last, I think she’s driven by a curiosity of boys more than anything. This explains her selfish behavior, yet doesn’t justify it. Jill is incredibly unlikeable, but I admire that in a writer. Being able to write an unlikeable character while maintaining a sense of realism is difficult, and while the narrative wasn’t my favorite, it wasn’t necessarily because of Jill’s personality/narration. I also like how the author included a sense of inner turmoil within Jill. There are multiple moments where Jill wrestles with being “boy crazy” and being “parent favorite”. The readers see that she doesn’t necessarily want to go to the paleontology exhibit, yet for her curiosity surrounding Esau, she pushes herself to do so. The moment that this story takes place in was also well-chosen. Ending the story with the butterfly release allows the reader to see that there may be a point in which Jill begins to grow up. At the start of the story, Jill can be seen as a caterpillar within a cocoon. She has an idea of who she wants to be, but the grappling and insecurities she has surrounding her motivations shows that she’s not fully developed. By the end of the story, the release of the butterflies can symbolize that Jill is on a path to grow into the person she wants to be, even though she is hurting at the moment. This, in my opinion, is a great way to end a short story, especially one that revolves around the main character’s flaws.
I think the choice of setting as a discovery museum is very metaphorical and unique to this story. A museum is a place for learning and discovery. Our narrator is a pre teen who is beginning her journey of discovering love and sexuality. I believe the setting of the overnight stay, at a museum, is a parallel to the phase of life our narrator is experiencing. As a pre teen you begin to experience freedoms for the first time, and the sleepover at a place away from home feels symbolic of this freedom.
“Good with boys” was an interesting read to me, if nothing else. Jil’s character is so well defined in the short time that we get to see her I feel like I know who she is from the start. She has a very strong personality and a viewpoint that is very interesting to see the world from. When the story started I placed the age of the students in somewhere in elementary school, but then Jil made comments about her undeveloped body, and making sexual innuendos which made me think possibly high school, but as the story continued I thought maybe late middle school. So I truly have no solid idea or reference for how old these kids are supposed to be which gives the story at least for me quite an odd feel to it. Jil as a character in general not just as a protagonist is quite unlikable at least for to, she feels like one of those characters that people either love or hate, I fall into more of the ladder camp. But none the less I found her viewpoint on Esau’s and Adam’s relationship fascinating. to me the relationship built between them felt very queer codded and seeing Jill’s perspective on that possible thread was so interesting, because seeing someone who is so narcissistic and so sure that they know how boys think and that she can manipulate them. Seeing what happens to her when she realizes that she doesn’t really have any control over Esau is fascinating.
I really appreciated the character’s voice in this story. In many ways, it was very convincingly told through the lens of a middle school/teenage girl. The constant focus on a boy conflicting with the desire not to be seen as “boy crazy”, the thoughts about her appearance, and the simultaneous awareness and disregard she shows for social rules, are all things that are common in girls her age, and they all combined in this story to make a character making believable choices that end up ultimately unsuccessful, but with only minor disaster/embarrassment that can be moved on from (although not necessarily forgotten). And all of that together is really the essence of middle school.
Jill’s low opinion of her appearance and pride in her capability to hang out with boys while not being one gives a lot of “not like other girls” vibes, and this paired with her focus on one boy, gives us a distinct and relatable character who makes her own (not great) choices. The way her story goes also shows the consequences of that single-minded focus that really pulls her character together, as well as the difficulty in tempering it with the regard for reputation and the rest of “society” (or in this case, a specific social sphere).
One aspect of this story that I found interesting was the dialogue. I find it really interesting how you can capture so many traits of a character by having them talk to someone else. I am a big fan of movies and I find it interesting how you can tell most about a character with how they communicate with each other. This is evident in the story when we see the main character talking to her friend Caroline compared to when she is talking to her crush, Esau. When she is talking to her friends, she is a lot more crass. Talking about how another boy, Nick, is an idiot and how the point of being there was to “mix it up” between genders. We can also detect hints of deception through her interactions with other characters. When Esau and Adam are making their way to the dinosaur exhibit and she suggests that they go then if they are caught they can just pretend that they didn’t know that area was off limits. This doesn’t mean she’s a bad person, I believe that it shows how much of a quick thinker she is. We can also see her quick decision making take place later when they get caught by Esau’s mom and get interrogated for going to the dinosaur exhibit. She takes the full blame, saving Esau and Adam from getting in trouble. The last notable case of interesting dialogue is at the end of the story when Esau’s mom yells at the protagonist for creeping around during the night. This absolutely destroys her and all the confidence she had in the beginning about being good with boys is shattered with one phrase. It is really interesting how, if used correctly, dialogue can add many layers of meaning to a story.
An element of craft I appreciated in “Good with Boys” was the character development. As growing up being a middle School teenage girl I can understand where she’s coming from and how she feels. Throughout the story you can tell she’s trying to push away the thought of boys and having a crush but it keeps coming back to her mind. You can see her question what to do in situations, how to get his attention, or how to make him interested in her. Jill even at at several points gained the strength to try and make moves on Esau and follow him and Adam to the dinosaur room when they’re not supposed to just to be able to get a couple minutes with him. She also tried to go up to him by the bookshelf late at night to talk to Esau but his mom woke up sending her back to the girls side all embarrassed. At the end of the field trip during the butterfly release Jill was able to take a moment to let go and just live in the moment.
Something I liked in Good with Boys was the way Jill described her interactions and observations of the other characters, along with analysis of her own behavior. The way she described boys made it sound like she had it down to an art, and hypothetically, she did. I also like the way that Jill thinks really encapsulates that teenager hormonal mess that is painfully self aware but just doesn’t care. She even acknowledges at one point her low self esteem and need for attention. The writing itself felt genuine and I really appreciate that. I enjoyed the way Jill thought about societal norms, in general. She thought about how girls and boys are “supposed” to act, recognizing it in others as well; her friend Sarah bringing underwear for a one night stay in a museum. Although, I do think there’s a possibility of Jill projecting her own feelings onto others to feel better about her thoughts that would be creepy out of context. In the end, her relying on Sarah for comfort that she said she doesn’t usually seek along with the butterflies being released, signified to me Jill releasing her own thoughts of trying to get with boys. I see it as having a boy indirectly reject her and instead make her focus on more viable and important things in life (friends, nature) being a sort of a horny teenage awakening, realizing life isn’t just impressing others for short-term rewards.
In Good Boys, I felt like our main character had no character development throughout the story. She starts off with the mission to “seduce” Easu, a notion that makes me incredibly uncomfortable since she’s so young. Then, by the end she is jealous, bitter, and holding up the entire class for the butterfly release. I felt like eventually she would realize that her actions were inappropriate and making everyone else uncomfortable, but it seems she had no self-awareness about her actions. Except she kind of did- throughout the narrative she pulls from her Aunt Jill (her namesake) about advice that she feels is pertinent to this conversation. In those few moments, she hits on moments of being self-aware (when you dislike something you have to do it more). She knows that these actions don’t make her feel good, but she continues to do them. She also realizes in the quiet moments that maybe she is coming on too hard – she feels out of place with Adam and Easu yet she continues her pursuit. Basically, I feel our character has negative development or no development throughout the story. She’s jealous, and over steps boundaries.
One element I particularly liked within Good with Boys was Jill’s use of voice throughout the story. This is told through her point of view and right away I could tell she was this young teenager going through that confusing stage of life where you start to develop crushes and go through puberty. Jill has her eye set on Esau and we find that out very quickly as Jill kind of takes the reader through her view of the world along with her view of herself. She describes how she has frizzy hair, glasses, and an underdeveloped body type, but that she has a good personality. As the story went on she was very descriptive with every action from the moment they were on the bus to when they got to the museum and I could see her personality shine through. She states that she didn’t want to be boy crazy, but the more moves she tried making the more I thought she was and when she tried making moves on Esau his mother always seemed to be in the way which felt is a common barrier in middle school. Her way of narrating made it seem as though she was someone who knew what she was talking about when it came to boys. She mentioned how all the girls brought extra underwear so it could be stolen by the boys and how you should just go for it if you wanted a boys attention, which is what she was going to do. Jill brought us through a relatable time in any young middle schoolers life where hormones are fluctuating and we just want to be noticed by someone, and then the downfall of realizing it won’t work. I think the innocent way in which this was told kept me captivated and made it feel more relatable from a young middle schoolers viewpoint.
18 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 3”
One thing I really enjoyed about “Good with Boys” was the voice that the narrator had. She saw things in a way that appeared to be nonchalant and not boy-crazy yet she spent the whole trip thinking of Esau. I think it’s quite relatable to want to convince yourself that you aren’t getting your hopes up for something to happen yet putting every ounce of your brain power into following your premeditated plan for that something to happen. One line in particular really stood out to me as a window into the narrator’s psyche. On page 165 it says, “What was this broken mirror inside of me, that showed me I was ugly, showed me I was wrong, but persisted in its reflection that I was better than other people? Could low-self esteem loop all the way around and become narcissism?” This line just goes to show how self-aware the narrator can truly be if she tried, yet she spends the majority of the story ignoring that self-awareness. She focuses on the low self-esteem induced narcissism and finds herself in an Esau-obsessed spiral. Also, I find it interesting how the narrator views Esau and Adam’s relationship. Could it be that Esau is interested in Adam and thus the narrator’s jealousy is fueled by the fact that she isn’t what Esau will ever want? Or could it be that the narrator is confusing platonic and romantic attraction and is simply just upset that Esau is more comfortable with Adam? Or could it be a complete other interpretation of what is causing this giant rock of jealousy in the pit of the narrator’s stomach?
Something I appreciated about “Good With Boys,” was that throughout the majority of the story, the narrator seemed very much familiar with who she was and what she wanted. Her character was very clear and came across fluidly. For example, when she said, “Everyone talks about personality like it’s a bad thing but the fact is, without one, you’ve got nowhere to go but ugly.” In this quote it is very clear how the narrator is very firm in what she says and what she believes. She seems to see things one way and everything else blurs out of focus, as demonstrated throughout her pursuit of finding alone time with Esau. However, once the narrator saw Esau engaging with Adam, something seemed to shift in her attitude and she became defeated/disappointed and her low self-esteem made another appearance. Did the narrator see how effortlessly happy Adam and Esau were together and realize that the strategic plotting and strict motive-driven methods of interaction were not the only way or even the best way to accomplish her goal? This next quote, taking place after she witnessed Esau’s comfortability with Adam prompted my next question, “I studied Adam, trying to memorize him so that I could be more like him, look more like him.” In that moment, did the narrator realize that Adam seemingly being himself was the reason he was successful in making connections and did she hope to embody that outlook? Or on the other hand, did she lose faith in herself and suddenly decide that beauty was the important key to success and that she had failed?
One element of craft that I would like to highlight from “Good with Boys” is the dialogue, specifically the internal dialogue the main character Jill is having with herself. It would be a tall task for me to put myself back in the shoes of an elementary-level kid and be able to accurately describe some of the things going on in their minds, but I think the author does a good job at doing so in this story. I believed that what I was reading was from the perspective of a young girl in elementary school. Dialogue was important in accomplishing this. The way that Jill thinks about boys as well as the silly things she does in an attempt to get their attention have a very childlike and innocent way about them. The author’s ability to convey this through her writing and dialogue is impressive and definitely stood out to me when I read the story. Jill’s internal dialogue when thinking about the connection that Esau and Adam have is very important to the story. It shows how Jill does not yet fully understand how relationships work and how people interact. She is jealous of how close Adam is to Esau and thinks that if she can be more like Adam she can have a similar relationship. The writer here is smart about the ways she shows the character’s youth and innocence, showing instead of telling.
One thing I really enjoyed about “Good with Boys” was the way the author voiced the narrator. I felt as though the narrator had a certain level of character that came across very well within her thoughts. I really liked how the reader could hear her obsession with this boy, Esau, when in her reality she was trying to play it off cool or like she wasn’t crazy about him. The way she spoke was very easy to follow along and interact with, while also being captivating in the sense of you finding yourself being able to almost feel the anxiety that she feels in certain scenarios, and I found that very interesting.
I was not the biggest fan of this short story. While I liked the idea of it, to me, this story felt unbelievable. It’s not absurd to think that kids in elementary school know about love and the whole boys and girls or boys and boys or girls and girls thing, but to think about it to that extent just seemed falsified to me. As for the element of craft I chose to focus on, I was thinking a lot about character development as I read this story, specifically about Jill’s development. As soon as I started reading, I wanted her to get better, to realize she seemed a little too boy crazy and was making silly choices, which she really didn’t. She did at one point admit that she was acting a little too aggressive and it was embarrassing, but I feel like she didn’t really develop past this. I’d believe that if this story continues, she’ll just find another boy to obsess over and the cycle will repeat again and again until she gets old enough to truly understand the implications of crushes and love. However, I do find the slight development or lack thereof, true. No one at Jill’s age will truly be able to just change how they view things in a night, so I’m glad that the author didn’t give Jill some big life changing epiphany. If anything, she had a small one, which was definitely a lot more believable given how old Jill is supposed to be.
In this story I really liked the internal voice of the main character. I really liked being able to hear her rationale and thoughts when she is doing things within the story. She gives a lot of detail and commentary on what is happening on this field trip the students are on. I also really liked the way she describes herself and her relationship and love for boys. She is honest to the readers about how much she likes boys and exactly what she does to be able to have many boys in her back pocket, it is a very fun touch on the story that adds a childish value to the story. It develops Jill’s character a lot and lets you truly see what she’s doing and why she is doing things. It was just a really good addition to the story itself.
Something I very much enjoyed about “Good with boys” was the voice of the narrator/main character as well as her development as a character. Her voice in the story seemed very mature for an elementary school kid, but I really liked it. I think the maturity helped sort out the uncertainty in the thoughts she was having because as a kid you don’t have a huge grasp on concepts like having a crush or you dont understand some of the social situations you’re put in. I really liked the way the narrator was working through those scenarios in her head while also maintaining the thought process a kid would have of just trying to get what they want no matter what happens.Throughout the story Jill is trying to grapple with the fact that she has a huge crush on this boy, but they’re also going to have a sleepover in a museum (which is a huge thing for a kid I’m very jealous I never did this). Jill is trying every which way to get closer to Esau and spend more time with him, but having so many obstacles in her way made it really hard and that frustrated her. I also really enjoyed the ending where she was just overlooking Esau and Adam and trying to take comfort in Sarah as the butterflies were released. The fact that she ended the story by getting distracted from the “pain” because of the butterflies was really beautiful to me. Having such huge emotions to go through and not being able to regulate them is hard enough, but still having childlike wonder over simple butterflies is awesome.
I didn’t love this story. I think there were a lot of inconsistencies and that the ending didn’t connect well enough to the events that played out in the story. However, what I found most interesting and liked the most was the tone of our narrator. She is very blunt with her internal dialogue with herself, as though we’re getting an unfiltered stream of her thoughts – We definitely always know exactly what she’s thinking. I think that this allows us to feel her frustration throughout the story. She never ends up getting what she wanted the whole time.
But I think the author is also trying to show the audience through this blunt tone that no, her thoughts aren’t necessarily normal for her age nor are they particularly accepted. The other girls were wondering why she was on the other side of the room, described thinking the boys were going to try to be “weird”, and constantly questioned where she was. I just don’t think the author picked one message to really emphasize in the story, so it was difficult to pick out what the overall point was for me. Yes, we know our character is definitely boy-crazy and self-reflective and has some self-esteem issues that she externalizes as seeking attention from boys, but why? What is the point? Why is the last sentence of this story about the butterflies and hurting when that didn’t seem to be the main focus of the story at all?
One element of craft that really stood out to me from “Good With Boys” is the dialogue. Moreso, the dialogue between the characters, specifically between the elementary students stood out to me. Throughout the story, we get to hear the conversion between Jill, and her fellow classmates. It was endearing to hear the way the students spoke to one another. Considering that they are elementary students, they tended to speak with more of a dramatic tone, and would exaggerate what they were saying. I can remember the days back to when I was in elementary school and all the kids would say something out of the ordinary, or they would do something they weren’t supposed to do, like how Jill, Esau, and Adam snuck off to see the dinosaurs. Another thing that I would like to point out that stood out to me was the inner dialogue Jill was having with herself throughout the story. It seems like she was having an internal debate with herself on how to grab the attention of Esau, the boy she admires. Jill is written to be boy crazy, which makes her want to do things that will hopefully grab his attention, like trying to sleep next to him, and wanting to be like Adam. At the end of the story, it leaves Jill with having some inner dialogue expressing that she knows what she’s doing and how boy crazy she is, but it doesn’t leave much room for her change.
I feel a little torn over “Good with Boys”. On one hand, the voice and the development (or lack thereof) the narrator, Jill, was interesting. I’m not certain how old the school kids are, but I’m assuming that they’re in middle school, probably around 8th grade, so it makes sense that Jill is interested in boys. Even if she admits that she knows her crush on Esau won’t last, I think she’s driven by a curiosity of boys more than anything. This explains her selfish behavior, yet doesn’t justify it. Jill is incredibly unlikeable, but I admire that in a writer. Being able to write an unlikeable character while maintaining a sense of realism is difficult, and while the narrative wasn’t my favorite, it wasn’t necessarily because of Jill’s personality/narration. I also like how the author included a sense of inner turmoil within Jill. There are multiple moments where Jill wrestles with being “boy crazy” and being “parent favorite”. The readers see that she doesn’t necessarily want to go to the paleontology exhibit, yet for her curiosity surrounding Esau, she pushes herself to do so. The moment that this story takes place in was also well-chosen. Ending the story with the butterfly release allows the reader to see that there may be a point in which Jill begins to grow up. At the start of the story, Jill can be seen as a caterpillar within a cocoon. She has an idea of who she wants to be, but the grappling and insecurities she has surrounding her motivations shows that she’s not fully developed. By the end of the story, the release of the butterflies can symbolize that Jill is on a path to grow into the person she wants to be, even though she is hurting at the moment. This, in my opinion, is a great way to end a short story, especially one that revolves around the main character’s flaws.
I think the choice of setting as a discovery museum is very metaphorical and unique to this story. A museum is a place for learning and discovery. Our narrator is a pre teen who is beginning her journey of discovering love and sexuality. I believe the setting of the overnight stay, at a museum, is a parallel to the phase of life our narrator is experiencing. As a pre teen you begin to experience freedoms for the first time, and the sleepover at a place away from home feels symbolic of this freedom.
“Good with boys” was an interesting read to me, if nothing else. Jil’s character is so well defined in the short time that we get to see her I feel like I know who she is from the start. She has a very strong personality and a viewpoint that is very interesting to see the world from. When the story started I placed the age of the students in somewhere in elementary school, but then Jil made comments about her undeveloped body, and making sexual innuendos which made me think possibly high school, but as the story continued I thought maybe late middle school. So I truly have no solid idea or reference for how old these kids are supposed to be which gives the story at least for me quite an odd feel to it. Jil as a character in general not just as a protagonist is quite unlikable at least for to, she feels like one of those characters that people either love or hate, I fall into more of the ladder camp. But none the less I found her viewpoint on Esau’s and Adam’s relationship fascinating. to me the relationship built between them felt very queer codded and seeing Jill’s perspective on that possible thread was so interesting, because seeing someone who is so narcissistic and so sure that they know how boys think and that she can manipulate them. Seeing what happens to her when she realizes that she doesn’t really have any control over Esau is fascinating.
I really appreciated the character’s voice in this story. In many ways, it was very convincingly told through the lens of a middle school/teenage girl. The constant focus on a boy conflicting with the desire not to be seen as “boy crazy”, the thoughts about her appearance, and the simultaneous awareness and disregard she shows for social rules, are all things that are common in girls her age, and they all combined in this story to make a character making believable choices that end up ultimately unsuccessful, but with only minor disaster/embarrassment that can be moved on from (although not necessarily forgotten). And all of that together is really the essence of middle school.
Jill’s low opinion of her appearance and pride in her capability to hang out with boys while not being one gives a lot of “not like other girls” vibes, and this paired with her focus on one boy, gives us a distinct and relatable character who makes her own (not great) choices. The way her story goes also shows the consequences of that single-minded focus that really pulls her character together, as well as the difficulty in tempering it with the regard for reputation and the rest of “society” (or in this case, a specific social sphere).
One aspect of this story that I found interesting was the dialogue. I find it really interesting how you can capture so many traits of a character by having them talk to someone else. I am a big fan of movies and I find it interesting how you can tell most about a character with how they communicate with each other. This is evident in the story when we see the main character talking to her friend Caroline compared to when she is talking to her crush, Esau. When she is talking to her friends, she is a lot more crass. Talking about how another boy, Nick, is an idiot and how the point of being there was to “mix it up” between genders. We can also detect hints of deception through her interactions with other characters. When Esau and Adam are making their way to the dinosaur exhibit and she suggests that they go then if they are caught they can just pretend that they didn’t know that area was off limits. This doesn’t mean she’s a bad person, I believe that it shows how much of a quick thinker she is. We can also see her quick decision making take place later when they get caught by Esau’s mom and get interrogated for going to the dinosaur exhibit. She takes the full blame, saving Esau and Adam from getting in trouble. The last notable case of interesting dialogue is at the end of the story when Esau’s mom yells at the protagonist for creeping around during the night. This absolutely destroys her and all the confidence she had in the beginning about being good with boys is shattered with one phrase. It is really interesting how, if used correctly, dialogue can add many layers of meaning to a story.
An element of craft I appreciated in “Good with Boys” was the character development. As growing up being a middle School teenage girl I can understand where she’s coming from and how she feels. Throughout the story you can tell she’s trying to push away the thought of boys and having a crush but it keeps coming back to her mind. You can see her question what to do in situations, how to get his attention, or how to make him interested in her. Jill even at at several points gained the strength to try and make moves on Esau and follow him and Adam to the dinosaur room when they’re not supposed to just to be able to get a couple minutes with him. She also tried to go up to him by the bookshelf late at night to talk to Esau but his mom woke up sending her back to the girls side all embarrassed. At the end of the field trip during the butterfly release Jill was able to take a moment to let go and just live in the moment.
Something I liked in Good with Boys was the way Jill described her interactions and observations of the other characters, along with analysis of her own behavior. The way she described boys made it sound like she had it down to an art, and hypothetically, she did. I also like the way that Jill thinks really encapsulates that teenager hormonal mess that is painfully self aware but just doesn’t care. She even acknowledges at one point her low self esteem and need for attention. The writing itself felt genuine and I really appreciate that. I enjoyed the way Jill thought about societal norms, in general. She thought about how girls and boys are “supposed” to act, recognizing it in others as well; her friend Sarah bringing underwear for a one night stay in a museum. Although, I do think there’s a possibility of Jill projecting her own feelings onto others to feel better about her thoughts that would be creepy out of context. In the end, her relying on Sarah for comfort that she said she doesn’t usually seek along with the butterflies being released, signified to me Jill releasing her own thoughts of trying to get with boys. I see it as having a boy indirectly reject her and instead make her focus on more viable and important things in life (friends, nature) being a sort of a horny teenage awakening, realizing life isn’t just impressing others for short-term rewards.
In Good Boys, I felt like our main character had no character development throughout the story. She starts off with the mission to “seduce” Easu, a notion that makes me incredibly uncomfortable since she’s so young. Then, by the end she is jealous, bitter, and holding up the entire class for the butterfly release. I felt like eventually she would realize that her actions were inappropriate and making everyone else uncomfortable, but it seems she had no self-awareness about her actions. Except she kind of did- throughout the narrative she pulls from her Aunt Jill (her namesake) about advice that she feels is pertinent to this conversation. In those few moments, she hits on moments of being self-aware (when you dislike something you have to do it more). She knows that these actions don’t make her feel good, but she continues to do them. She also realizes in the quiet moments that maybe she is coming on too hard – she feels out of place with Adam and Easu yet she continues her pursuit. Basically, I feel our character has negative development or no development throughout the story. She’s jealous, and over steps boundaries.
One element I particularly liked within Good with Boys was Jill’s use of voice throughout the story. This is told through her point of view and right away I could tell she was this young teenager going through that confusing stage of life where you start to develop crushes and go through puberty. Jill has her eye set on Esau and we find that out very quickly as Jill kind of takes the reader through her view of the world along with her view of herself. She describes how she has frizzy hair, glasses, and an underdeveloped body type, but that she has a good personality. As the story went on she was very descriptive with every action from the moment they were on the bus to when they got to the museum and I could see her personality shine through. She states that she didn’t want to be boy crazy, but the more moves she tried making the more I thought she was and when she tried making moves on Esau his mother always seemed to be in the way which felt is a common barrier in middle school. Her way of narrating made it seem as though she was someone who knew what she was talking about when it came to boys. She mentioned how all the girls brought extra underwear so it could be stolen by the boys and how you should just go for it if you wanted a boys attention, which is what she was going to do. Jill brought us through a relatable time in any young middle schoolers life where hormones are fluctuating and we just want to be noticed by someone, and then the downfall of realizing it won’t work. I think the innocent way in which this was told kept me captivated and made it feel more relatable from a young middle schoolers viewpoint.