The Narrators in Literature in How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie and Others

‘Eveline’ is a fiction story wrote by James Joyce which talks about a young Irish girl and her strive to liberate her from the cold and dead life she lives to go live in the beautiful sunny Buenos Aires with the love of her life. She, however, does not have that courage to swallow her fear and make that move. In the story, ‘The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,’ by D. H. Lawrence brings out the main character who is Mabel to show how she fights hard to abandon her poverty-stricken life by taking away her life to and unite with her late mother who passed on years before. The two stories bring comparison where the two main characters in both stories fight for their happiness and their place in the world.

Comparing the mainstay of the two short stories, ‘Eveline’ and ‘The Horse Dealers Daughter,’ the two characters are desperate of finding true love and the genuine people to love them. In the story ‘Eveline,’ the protagonist is a girl of a man who lost two family members who include his wife and his son. Eveline was very close to her dear mother and her brother before they passed on and left alone in this lonely world. In the short story ‘The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,’ Mabel who is the main protagonist is the daughter of a very successful horse dealer. Her mother who she loved most passed on left her alone. She has three brothers and a sister, and this still makes her feel like an outsider in her own family.

In the society today, it is known that the bond between a mother and her daughter plays a big role in making the daughter an independent woman. Eveline and Mabel, in that case, are alike to the attachment they had to their mothers, and the assumptions are real. Eveline, for instance, remembers the days when her mother was alive and terms them as happy days. Her mother was like a pillar of unity and happiness to the family. She desired those days now that her father is very bad with an alcohol problem. He is very harsh and has made the family’s happiness vanish. Her mother’s last wish to her was to make the family happy and keep it together. She was left with a big responsibility of taking care of her two young siblings. She has to take care of her family by working in her home, and at some point, she has to use her own money to pay bills and buy food. Her father is an alcoholic who treats her violently at some point. Frank a young man who is in love with Eveline wants to bring her out bondage and take her to the beautiful sunny Buenos Aeries to live like his wife on his white horse, but her fears make her not make up the decision.

Mabel on the other misses the company of her mother as she lives in her memories as she was the only person she loved most. Mabel was her father’s biggest caretaker after her mother passed on, but when he remarries, things become so hard for her which makes her miss the moments she shared with her mother. Mabel did not share the same life as that of his brothers who very outspoken and handsome men. Mabel took care of their house for more than ten years, and she did not have a friend of her own even that of her sex. Her brothers controlled her so much and felt so superior even though they all depended on Mabel. She had become a servant to them for long and hardly heard them only giving them neutral responses or becoming quiet. Instead of encouraging her like their sister, they always teased her about becoming a maid with her bulldog face.

Mabel seemed so alone in the world, and that is why she always missed her mother’s company that no one could replace. Both Eveline and Mabel loved and enjoyed the company of their mothers and were greatly affected. No one had any support from their family members to help them in grieving for their loss which led to a lot of insecurities since they all wanted to escape their lives (Bates, 2004).

In the three short stories “A&P” by John Updike and “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” by Junot Diaz and “Lust” by Susan Minot are stories where the main actors are also the narrators. The three narrators are similar in age, which are developing sexually and are against expected paradigms behaviors in the society. The three narrators are transforming from childhood to adulthood. They are unreliable and subjective to the society because the story is based on the young people’s lives which they are. They behave in a way that enables them to fit in the rich class in the society to feel worthy just like others. This behavior also brings out they fear they have in not fitting in the society. This brings out how teenagers and young adults feel in the very fast moving worlds that have made them grow so fast.

In the short stories “A&P” Sam took people to be sheep. He brings out the fear he has to be like them. He had an attraction for girls who dressed inappropriately which made him lose his job because he went to the point of boycotting his boss. This shows the risks he took trying to fit in the certain social class. The unnamed character in “How to Date” brings out the image that breaks the Dominican culture. The protagonist hides the white girl’s picture from his countryside cousins and puts the welfare cheese to impress the girl. Just like Sam, The character does not care about the girl’s race. In “Lust” the narrator who also is the main character uses sexuality to bring out the aspect of careless relationships. She sticks on her behavior of being taking control over everything as this is what makes her feel superior.

The characters in the three stories show us what goes on the minds of the young people entering adulthood and the challenges they face during that transition. Their experiences show us as readers how they view the world, the pressure and the need to fit in the different social classes and their sexual interests. The narrators who also are this young person narrate their worries, feelings, and shortcomings which help us know them better. The authors create a connection with the protagonists which helps us have a view of what is in their minds and hearts and what goes on in their lives as young people (Updike & Plath, 2014).

In the story, “Famine” by Xu Xi talks about a daughter who fights for her mental freedom. The story talks about the Chinese culture and family life. The plot of the story flows very well showing a dutiful woman who is controlled by her father. She is a Chinese whose family is deeply founded in the Hong Kong culture, and she narrates how she faced harsh upbringing from her childhood which involved going for days without food and the obligations she had to meet as a daughter of the cultures. She attempts to shake her father’s presence. And she teaches herself English which is unknown to her parents.

The narrator truly feels free by the death of her parents and ironically there not true freedom in that case. She goes back to the past trying to compare her situation with the present. She acts centrally to what she was taught by living a life where she travels a lot, spends money contrary to the culture and then escapes to New York. She lives her way where she longs for westernization. The language used is thus semi-rebellious which tries to bring out the reason why she lives according to the ways she has chosen. The conflicts in this story make its tone cynicism since the character is bitter for the things that her parent forbids her to do.

The tone of the story of famine later changed to become forgiving when the narrator had a spiritual connection with her late parent. This made her forgive them for what they did to her in the past. The theme of this story is mental freedom. The narrator finds inner peace from her troubles of the past which can be described in her liking for eating a lot. The story is based on mental freedom where the narrator is fighting to have a stand in the world today. It brings out the different literature styles more so irony where the narrator is happy with the death of his parents now that he can live a life she wants which is not true freedom.