“It didn’t last because my friend was a boy, a boy who knew how to fight back, a boy who believed that he could interrupt the current and draw his world back into order. It didn’t work because he felt powerful, after all, worthy of those friends and their loyalty” (xii).
At this time, women were inferior. They could not stand up for themselves the same way men could. They had to stand back in take it. Her friend was able to move past the fight and the friends that left him behind because he knew no one was going to judge him for his decisions. Women do not have these same luxuries. They have to abide by everyone else's rules. Hall expressed this in the 'shunning' of her main character. This story of her friend his the explanation of why she couldn't fight back, because she wasn't expected to. She is a woman and the job of a woman is to blend in and do what the are told. Do not cause damage to anything and obey.Hall expressed the inequality between genders. Hall's main character's father of her child, got off free, but she had to suffer the consequences. Her pregnancy was her fault, she should have contained herself, she should not have seduced him. Hall expressed all that is wrong with this time period and situation in this one quote.
I this quote simply reflective of the times, or still one that rings true today? Is it as simple as expectations the "times" have placed on either gender, or a part of what innately happens with boys versus girls. What is typical in friendships for boys versus girls? Also, think of what she says about feeling powerful and entitled to that friendship and its loyalty.
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