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Jessica Iacono Unlikely Situations Society’s impacts are noticeable throughout the course of one’s life. Despite an individual’s efforts to avoid these impacts, society’s hold on one’s mentality is much stronger than one may believe. In a vast majority of instances, proof of societal issues are found during a personal struggle. Such is true in three short stories found in Roxane Gay’s edition of The Best American Short Stories. These findings are especially noticeable in Emma Cline’s short story “Los Angeles”, where a young girl moves to the city to take acting classes and works in retail to pay for her accommodations. She resorts to a twisted version of selling herself in order to afford her classes. In Ann Glaviano’s “Come On, Silver,” the truths of society’s impacts may also be found as the main character attends a summer camp and describes her experience through letters to her future husband. In Jacob Guajardo’s story “What Got Into Us,” the societal perceptions are clear through the different character’s life choices. As such, all three stories prove that society’s negative perceptions of situations considered different from the norm inevitably have a negative impact on an individual.

Firstly, all three characters experience their own personal situation that is considered different form what society expects of them. Through the story’s plot, the author creates an experience that is not typical for the character, according to what society expects. In “Los Angeles,” Alice works at a retail store that sells provocative clothing and is marketed towards young girls. The employees at the store are sexualized as they are forced to wear the store’s clothes and have their picture taken at the job interview. Should corporate approve of the way the interviewee looks, whomever “did your interview got a $200 bonus” (63). This line of work introduced Alice

to a strange fetish, the selling of worn undergarments, which Alice begins to do. For Alice, the reader, and society, this situation is immediately atypical. As such, Alice hides this profession from everyone she knows, save for her co-worker Oona, who does not follow most of societal expectations. In the plot of Glaviano’s story, Josephine is at an all-girl summer camp for young girls where the ultimate objective for each girl is to be named Queen of the camp. Typically, society expects individuals to be pleased and satisfied with whatever they do, but for Josephine, that is not the case. Through tone, the reader can understand Jo’s emotions of hatred and bitterness towards the camp even though she tries to better herself at running and equestrian. In the third story “What Got Into Us” two teenage boys are in the midst of understanding their sexuality when societal expectations crash whatever hopes they had of being themselves. They are caught having sex together and their mother’s immediately loose trust in the boys whose relationship has now changed tremendously, since both boys do not live up to societal standards. In all three stories, the characters do not live up to societal expectations.

Society creates a perfect version of what every individual must live up to in terms of appearance and behaviours. For all three stories, each character struggles with a different aspect of society’s ideals of sexuality. In the first story, Alice is faced with the objectification. Through imagery, Cline allows the reader to understand that corporate is looking for young, thin, and pretty girls to plaster on billboards in order to sell their merchandise. This can easily be put in a societal context where corporate represents society and expectations towards girls remain the same. Girls are expected to be thin, to be pretty, and to let themselves be objectified. When Alice is selling the underwear, she is inadvertently creating an object of herself whose sole purpose is for male pleasure. This objectification is present in society as a definitive factor women must adhere too.

If a woman was to feel differently, she will then suffer on a personal level. Further, in “Come On, Silver,” the entire purpose of the camp was to teach young girls how to behave as girls. They are taught that behaving differently from what they are being told to do is wrong. Similar to Alice’s employer, Josephine’s camp represents societal ideas of women. However, rather than demonstrating how others should treat women, the camp teaches young girls how society expects them to be. This immediately has a negative impact on the girls who are very young and feel very much pressured by their peers and what others think of them. By forcing them to act and behave a certain way, their individuality is being stripped and these young girls have no choice but to live with the internal struggle of not being allowed to behave how they want to out of fear. The author portrays this through the threat given to the girls of receiving zero points for the house when they sneak out at night. Glaviano’s choice of diction demonstrates that the girls must remain in their cabins at night so as to follow societal rules. As for Guajardo’s story, the young boys face the consequences of not adhere to society’s expectations for a boy’s sexuality. Though the only real way to understand one’s sexuality is through experiences, society stopped the pair of young lovers dead in their tracks simply because it was abnormal. The boys faced a lifelong struggle because of what society had expected of them, and following societal expectations was not something either child could do in order to be their real selves.

The main characters in each story experience an internal struggle. The struggle that they each deal with is based on their non-complacency with societal ideals and norms. Alice’s situation makes her feel trapped, which is literally expressed when “she was trapped” in the man’s car and that “she had done this to herself” (75). This signifies that the objectification through her behaviours of solicitation do not adhere with her own personal values and beliefs and has a direct

negative impact on her mental health. Alice complies with what society expects of her, and struggles immensely, to the point where she believes that there is no way for her to remove herself from being more than an object. Societal objectification of girls leads Alice to struggle deeply but nothing is done to change the situation, and all girls like Alice remain trapped. As for Josephine, her refusal to comply with how she must behave left her alone in the middle of the lake and trying to find an escape even though she knows she won’t be able to. She struggled in her actions since even though she understood there wouldn’t be direct consequences, the way the members of the camp, thus society, will perceive her, shall be as someone who does not fit the norm and she will therefore be less than what everyone expects. Society does not only have expectations for girls, but also has troubling ideals for boys as well. When they are caught by the pastor, Rio immediately begins to behave exactly how society expects young boys to behave: play sports, act popular, and perform acts that may be dangerous. Through Rio’s character, Guajardo demonstrates what the outcomes are when following societal expectations even though they do not adhere with what you truly believe. Rio and Delmar were best friends and both did well in school, but after that summer, Rio began to spiral, whereas Delmar pursued his objectives. Years later, Rio is in a much worse situation that Delmar, mainly because he let society dictate how he should behave rather than following his personal truths like Delmar.

Ultimately, society forces individuals to behave a certain way and to comply with these expectations. If an individual find themselves in a situation where they do not adhere to simply one of society’s enforced values, they will find themselves struggling against society, and what their own personal beliefs are, and how they do not coincide. Thus, all three stories present situa-

tions where the character feels conflicted about their behaviours and beliefs since they are not accepted by society. These pressures are felt by both boys and girls and have a lasting effect on one’s mental health. Society creates unrealistic and unhealthy standards for individuals to adhere to, and if they don’t respect these standards, they are immediately seen as less and are negatively perceived by those around them.

References

Gay, R., & Pitlor, H. (2018). The Best American short stories 2018. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt....