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Hanging Fire By Adam Bagdasarian

663 Words3 Pages

Most people consider adolescence as a peaceful time period in life but that is far from the truth. Adam Bagdasarian’s short story “Popularity” is about a boy who struggles to fit in and all he wants to be is popular. “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde is a short story about a girl who has multiple insecurities while dealing with them alone. “Going Steady” by Adam Bagdasarian is a short story about a boy who struggles to express his real feelings when in a romantic relationship. Adolescence is a time full of fights and no one can escape its pain because the fight for popularity and feeling insecure, while feeling alone can often be challenging for teens. Adolescents often have the urge to be popular. When the narrator is talking about the popular …show more content…

The speaker is talking about her insecurities when she says, “I am fourteen / and my skin has betrayed me” (Lorde, line 1-2). The speaker is insecure that her skin is not clear. The speaker lists a variation of other struggles with her physical appearance that she is self conscious about but feels there is no one to talk to. At the end of each stanza after talking about her insecurities the speaker repeats the lines, “and momma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed” (Lorde, lines 10, 11, 22, 23, 34, 35). The speaker feels that her mom doesn’t care and that she can’t talk to her about her …show more content…

When describing a girl in the narrator’s grade he says, “Linda Lieban was an artist, a free spirit, a bohemian who played the flute in the park, drew pictures or winged horse and naked nymphs” (Bagdasarian 1). The opposing side may argue this shows that Linda has a peaceful life with little responsibilities to worry about. As the plot goes on we realize Linda has to go through a break up and struggles to stay happy. After Linda expresses her feelings towards the narrator, “the bell ending recess rang and she kissed [him] and we walked together arm in arm toward our next class.” (Bagdasarian 17). The opposing side may argue that adolescent relationships are easy with less authority. The story then goes on to talk about how the narrator and Linda aren’t expressing true feelings and end up both being hurt. The opposing side overall would be wrong because adolescence at times might seem simple but in reality is faced with a lot of

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