Close Friend To Geraldine And Kate example essay topic

The passage entitled, "Slow, Slow, Quick-Quick, Slow" is done in first person narration as the words "I" and "me" are used. We can easily identify the narrative as soon as we start reading the passage as Kate, the narrative voice was asked a question at the beginning of the passage and Kate commented to the readers, "Margaret Connelly and I were stumbling around the school hall doing a parody of the foxtrot". This tells us that they are rehearsing for a dance for a special school event and that's why Margaret asked Kate what she will be wearing for that night. We see Kate as a shy, but disobeying character, and she seems to describe other characters in detail, and adds humour to the situation.

"I got the distinct impression that she might break into a fandango and go stamping across the stage in a flurry of high heels and dust". We share with her, her thoughts and expectations of events and other characters, such as her best friend Geraldine, "Geraldine liked to shock people and usually succeeded... ". Miss Cordova, Annette Fur longer and Margaret Mary Connelly were also identified with Kate's dialogue and light hearted personality. Jennifer Dabbs, the writer, is positioning the readers to emphasize with the narrator.

Kate and her friends are seen as stereotypical female teenagers, who never seem to obey adults and always seem to be in a world of their own. The author uses colloquial language, such as "unhealthy looking lot" and "I slunk out after her". No past is revealed, but the present reveals many of the characters attitudes and personalities. We recognize Kate's true personality from the last paragraph, "We were always off together somewhere on our own. I suppose we must have seemed odd, but we never felt anything except delightfully superior and special".

This quote also supports the fact that Kate and Geraldine portray stereotypical teenage friends who are in a world of their own. Geraldine is seen as a different person to Kate, and the narrative voice tells us this, "Geraldine liked to shock people... ". We see her as a persistent, winging and powerful individual who has the potential to succeed in anything she says or does, "Bloody hell Annette! If you plant that great foot of yours on my toes once more, I'll scream out loud".

Although we get an unreliable attitude from Kate on Geraldine, "Poor Geraldine had copped Annette for all the dancing lessons... ". , as we see them as close friends and her judgement of Geraldine would be a quite different one from any of the other characters' judgement on her. Overall, the narrative voice is friendly, humour ess and personal but mocking which is what brings about the humour. We rely on Kate's judgement on Geraldine up to a certain point because her personal observations on this character, her best friend, are much different in comparison to a characters' judgement that dislikes Geraldine. We also observe the pressure which Geraldine has on Kate by making her skip the dance class with her. The way in which Kate regards the situation and the other characters in the passage is shared with the reader and the writer positions the readers to sympathize with the narrator. It is obvious that Kate and Geraldine dread their physical education teacher, Miss Cordova and don't respect her in the way other students should respect their teachers, "Spanish extraction, my fat aunt.

She's no more Spanish than my dog. Pure Mongrel, if you ask me". This mocking attitude towards Miss Cordova establishes a relationship between the reader and the narrator as this situation in a dance class seems familiar to many of the readers. Margaret is seen as a posh and rude girl, judged by Kate, and is not seen as a close friend to Geraldine and Kate. She takes all her time to prepare for the dance, in which neither Geraldine and Kate are interested in, "Well, I'm having my hair done after school... it wouldn't hurt you two to pay a bit of attention to your appearance... or you might find yourselves decorating the walls tonight". Through the dialogue of Geraldine and Kate we see their attitudes towards their dance rehearsals, Miss Cordova, Annette and Margaret.

Their attitude towards Annette also shows the ignorance of teenagers, as they refer to Annette as, .".. the country bred giantess" and this is what makes Geraldine and Kate distant from friends with Annette. The descriptive, colloquial and familiar language that Dabbs uses to establish a relationship between the reader and narrator as Kate shares her experiences with the readers and the large amount of dialogue used achieves this. These words include, "sheer", "stockinged", "butted", "tarting" and "twanged". The dialogue brings the readers closer to the situation and has the effect of including us in with the characters conversation, with the colloquialism used, "Kate isn't interested in tarting herself up for a load of dron goes from Christian Brothers Collage St Kilda, are you Kate?" This informal conversation brings us close to the characters and their situation. This consistent conversation symbolizes their situation as boring, lengthy, dancing lessons in which they try to avoid. In the last sentence of the passage we see their true values towards life as we witness this as the same for any other teenagers, looking forward to the weekend, "I can't wait till Saturday can you?" , "It will be lovely, Kate".

This is an effective ending as it brings about their true intellects and understanding of certain situations. The mocking tone of Kate expresses her handling of being in dance class with Miss Cordova, and it also expresses why she skipped class; from peer pressure from Geraldine, "Oh, hell, I've had quite enough of this. Lets go", and from her own experiences regarding the other characters in the passage.