Andrea Gerber Ms.

Jessica Camargo ENGLISH 2100-003 21 March 2013 Losing your Lust: A Tale of Stereotypes

"Teenage years. You know just what you're doing and don't see the things that start to get in the way" (Minot 341). Lust , written by Susan Minot, is a short story that tells the tale of a girl who falls into a life of sexual prowess. The un-named character goes through multiple sexual encounters, starting from her very first month at boarding school. When the character (also the narrator of the story,) first starts this string of sexcapades, she sees it as a way to have fun and unwind. She [the narrator] even states that she had a different song for each boy depending on the way he treated her (or wherever they had ended up having sex). As the story goes on, it becomes evident that the narrator is unhappy with the image she has set up for herself: "I thought that the worst thing anyone could call you was a cock-teaser. So, if you flirted, you had to be prepared to go through with it" (Minot 342). At the very end of the story, the narrator explains that in the beginning, its all fun and games, but now that there is this specific way others see her, she feels even emptier than she did before. This essay will contain specific quotes to display how this text employs point-of-view, diction, and tone to create a one-sided view of gender, suggesting that the narrator is trying to sway the beliefs and bias of the reader. Lust is written in a female's perspective, first-person narrative; by providing this point-of-view, the reader is able to comprehend and interpret the story on a different level. While all of the males that she experienced sexual encounters with have names, the narrator remains nameless throughout the whole story. By doing this, the author has given the readers the opportunity to place themselves in the narrator's shoes and see what she is feeling and thinking. It allows the possibility of the story to connect to a reader's own life and past. Many written novels take to the well-known third person perspective, the main characters have names and certain personality traits, the reader can relate to the protagonist's family life or the antagonist's struggles, but the reader is viewing the story

as a bystander, or side character, rather than the main character. As well as using a female, first person point-of-view, Minot also uses diction to bias the reader. Diction is the "style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words" (Encyclopedia Britannica). For example, the narrator uses the word "surrender" (Minot 341) to discuss how there were times when she simply gave up and instead of just saying 'no' to sex, she just went with whatever the guy wanted to do. "Then they get mad after, when you say enough is enough. After, when it's easier to explain that you don't want to. You wouldn't dream of saying that maybe you weren't really ready to in the first place" (Minot 343). This quote is stated when narrator has tried to have a post-sex conversation with her partner, he isn't very sure what's she talking about, and its clear to the reader that the male would rather not have a discussion with the narrator, that he would rather continue to fool around. This can be seen as an important quote, because it builds towards the stereotype that many men use women for sex. It sets the reader on a path of sympathy for the narrator, because now she is beginning to realize that she's just being used for her body, this is no longer a game for her, but for the males, it always will be. "Then you start to get tired. You begin to feel diluted, like watered-down stew" (Minot 342). There are two tones present in Lust, the first tone is happy, playful, and more evident in the first half of the story. The narrator talks of her adventures with these boys: walks off campus, hanging around friend's houses, hiding out in study hall, and a camping trip to Colorado. While she speaks of the handful of boys that she had slept with, there were also those like Andrew, who simply kept the narrator around for company and affection rather than sex: "when we finally dozed off, he dared to put his arm around me, but that was it" (Minot 342). As the narrator continues through her years at boarding school, the tone becomes pessimistic and unpleasant, she states that "after sex, you curl up like a shrimp, something deep inside you ruined, slammed in a place that sickens at slamming, and slowly you fill up with an overwhelming sadness, an elusive gaping worry." The narrator has come to the realization that the emotional void she has, this emptiness she has been desperate to fill with sex, is impossible to rid herself of. She has put herself in the position where she is unable to love, "...you don't even ask for anything or try to say something to him because it's obviously your own damn fault...you haven't been able to open your heart. You open your legs but can't, or don't dare anymore, to open your heart" (Minot 345). In A Theory of Narrative by Franz K Stanzel, it is written that "presentation of consciousness and inside view are effective means of controlling the reader's sympathy, because they can influence the reader subliminally in favour of a character in the story" (Stanzel 128). By not naming her narrator, Minot has created a "relatable being" rather than a specific character, this gives the reader the full insight that can connect he/she via his/her own real life events and decisions. If the narrator were to have a given name, than

the biased sympathy expected of the reader would not be possible. With the usage of point-of-view, diction, and tone, Minot has created a one-sided view of the female gender, successfully creating the option to bias the reader's opinion. At the end of her story, the narrator states that "you're gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared" (Minot 345). This final quote symbolizes the fact that narrator has found herself at the same place she was to begin with, empty and alone. "It was different for a girl" (Minot 341).

Works Cited Page

Encyclopedia Britannica. "Diction." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diction?s=t>. Meyer, Michael. "Minot/Lust." The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2005. 349-45. Print. Minot, Susan. Lust & Other Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin/S. Lawrence, 1989. Print. Stanzel, F. K. A Theory of Narrative. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge UP, 1984. Print.