Introduction
The story talks about a fourteen –year- old girl who becomes pregnant for the second time. After becoming pregnant she is sent by her mother to go and live with her aunt and uncle in the south but she takes it as if she has been sold into slavery. She compares her stay in her uncle’s house to be as slavery and takes as if she has been sold into slavery. Gayle does not regard anybody or anything as a human but only herself and her free friends. She is hard to be understood as appears self centered yet she seems older than her years. This is due to her experience in life. When she interprets the world she can now be seen young and her lack in concern is directly related towards her age and development.
Her lack of emotion is evident from the beginning of the story when she becomes pregnant. As she undergo abortion she considers it unpainfulland tells her doctor, nothing pains and there was nothing to cry about when her doctor was trying to be sympathetic and offer encouragement. She took abortion as a normal thing and nothing .Her response to the act of abortion was just but annoyance. She is not even concern about anybody else or even the consequences of abortion. Her efforts to conduct her boyfriend Troy show us how she is too careless and she can be taken advantage. She conducts her boyfriend severally but no success. At the beginning we are told that she is pregnant for the second time meaning she has had the first pregnant and may even have participated in abortion, as evident when talking with her doctor when she regards abortion as nothing. Her carelessness is also seen as she consistently conducts his boyfriend who seems not interested in her as he does not answer her calls.Insead of critically realizing he has move on, she still blames him. The flight attendant causes Gayle to become suspicious and never trust her (Williams-Garcia, 1995 p.62).
Although at the beginning of the story Gayle seems experience her comments which she makes throughout the book contradicts this. She makes comments as a young and unexposed to the word. This makes the reader to realize that Gayle is still young. As she flies to Newyork, Gayle exposes her childish behavior when she shouts on buildings and landmarks (Williams-Garcia, 1995 p.83).
When Gayle meets her relatives in the airport she refuses to show any emotion towards her cousin Constance. This further reveals how careless Gayle is. Although she is aware that she is supposed to relate well with her cousin she ignores her as if she does not know .Although she looks at her sympathetically as she still have the pain of abortion she ignores her. Constance feel rejected and she revealed this by her unfriendly behavior (Williams-Garcia, 1995 p.128). Although her cousin tries to show sympathy on her she does not show any interest on her and this makes her feel as though rejected by her. However she retaliates by showing her that she also has her own feelings. Through such we get the character of Gayle that she not concern about relatives and that is also unthankfull.It still reveals that Gayle is still immature. This story reveals to us that the main protagonist, Gayle is still immature from the beginning of the story and she grows throughout the story. Although immaturity is experience in the beginning of story, change comes and that is why maturity of Gayle is realized. This means every human being undergo changes from immaturity to maturity stages.
Works Cited
Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront. New York: Lodestar Books, 1995. Print.
Williams, Garcia V. From Drums to Harp: The Story of Drummer and Harpist Robert M. Garcia. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2010. Print.
