Questing for AcceptanceIn Ellen Gilchrist?s ?In The Land Of Dreamy Dreams,? Leland Arnold is a wiped out(p) jejune trying to learn the ways of the world but, more(prenominal) especi aloney, trying to buzz off her own niche in it. diffident of who she is, she leads a terrene existence in Franklin, Indiana in a semi-broken radical and is trying to figure out how to be a adult female from the very start of the base. No casing is more distinct of this than the very frontmost paragraph of the story describing Leland, or Lele for short, information the directions on a box of tampons. The first two sentences pose up the entire story by showing that Lele is already in transition and trying to reckon who she is in an already confused state of mind, which makes for quite an evoke story. Lele is on a interest with no tangible roads or paths; no swallowning and no end, but or else it is a pilgrimage in her mind where good looks and popularity beat synonymous with Leland A rnold. The quest is quite an interesting one in that it is non a rocky road traveled or a impregnate mountain to climb, or a travel through a dangerous forest but but an experiment in self-improvement; real or imagined. Lele is on a tour to pop off the person she?s constantly treasured to be simply because she is afforded the opportunity to do precisely that. Her scram tells her that she is going to re trigger off down to Clarksville, Mississippi on the delta to hold on with her cousin, ? bollocks up Gwen? Barksdale whose mother had recently, ??died of a weak dark-skinned? (Gilchrist, 138). This is the fresh start that Lele is looking for. Disillusioned and somewhat uncalled-for from reality, she criticizes the students at Franklin Junior High because they, ??had made the mistake of helplessness to elect me cheerleader? (Gilchrist, 138). Her rationalization continues with the next sentence stating, ?I wasn?t unpopular or anything, just a little on the plump side? (G ilchrist, 138). In Clarksville, she needs no! rationalizations because she could be whoever she wants to be, and she is. Her motivation for the journey is purely self-improvement, even if it is only in her mind. In fact, one could argue that her lies are more of a set buttocks than an advancement forward; a fixation defend to MORE child-like ways, but only she knows that. Her lies approximately who she is begin as soon as she gets off the train and meets go bad Gwen, who isn?t so much of a baby anymore, at the station. Lele tells Baby Gwen that, ?No one in Franklin believed I?d [come her] either,? and, ?I just got elected cheerleader and practically the whole football team up came to the station to tell her goodbye? (Gilchrist, 139). The ideational Football team, however, k spic-and-span about Lele?s college swain Bob Arnold who had thyroid cancer and likewise whom she was not allowed to assignment because he was Jewish. So, from the beginning of the journey, Lele has already set herself up as a popular cheerleader wh o is constantly creation chased by boys even though she is more shape up and has a college boyfriend so she is to a fault a rebel. In fact, her constantly referring to her cousin as ?Baby Gwen? is indicative of her unconscious mind attempts to be separate than Gwen because she still refers to her as a baby. She alike talks very fondly of her own Mother, a bridge-playing champion, probably to rub it in Gwen?s face that Lele has a divulge breeding when, in all actuality, her parents are unofficially separated. In Clarksville, Lele is not Lele anymore. She is a young and immature girl who fabricates the ? rattling(a)? Leland Arnold, a popular young lady who smokes cigarettes, sunbathes all mean solar day and has boys like Fielding Reid interested in her and had girls looking up to her like Sarah from Drew who, ??was delighted with the attention I gave her and was perpetually telling someone how ?wonderful? I was and how much it meant to her to feign me in Clarksville? (Gilchrist, 145). The desired outcome of her journey! is realized when she in truth for a second becomes the person she said she was back home in Franklin.
Fielding talks about floatming the local lake and Lele invites herself to join him on what Fielding said was an impossible fluid for her because it was five miles. That matters not to Lele since she is a Junior Red intersect Life Saver back home and ??practically taught swimming at camp? (Gilchrist, 149). She finishes the swim with this boy because her reasoning is this:? fluent was of no importance to me one way or the other. What matteredto me was that a boy of my own choosing, a first-rate boy, was coming to takeme somewhere. not coming for Baby Gwen and taking me along to be nice, butcoming for me? (Gilchrist, 149). At that moment of triumph, she became the popular girl she talked about nonstop. She felt vilified because, of all the nonsense she had said over the Summer, she actually was able to become the person she claimed she was by swimming that lake. At that moment of triumph, her unfermented and seemingly successful invigoration is snatched away as cursorily as it was obtained. Her Father is there and informs her that her reconciled parents want her to move back to Indiana and she doesn?t have a cream in the matter. Lele did go through a significant commute over the course of the Summer because she apparently had everyone fooled and did live the life of a very popular girl even though her life was merely a façade. She was the person she wanted to be only in her own mind. However, one could argue that she did in fact change along the path of her journey. When she gets b ack to Franklin, she tells infatuated tales of her ! engagement to Fielding Reid and how her ??mother and father come and pull up me home practically the same day we fell in love? (Gilchrist, 153). She could now liven up her previously tedious existence in Indiana with stories of boys and swimming and carefree eld as the ?wonderful? Leland Arnold down in Clarksville, Mississippi. Bibliography:Ellen Gilchrist?s ?In The Land Of Dreamy Dreams If you want to get a broad(a) essay, rate it on our website:
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