Virgins By Danielle Evans Analysis

“Virgins”, by Danielle Evans, is a tragic story narrated by a young girl who places what she views as “inevitability” into her own terms. The protagonist of the story is Erica, a young, physically well-developed girl who has her own view on men and what exactly they want from her. Throughout the story, a constant battling environment surrounds her, and one side of her keeps pushing her to the verge of giving up everything - even her virginity. Evans uses the title of the story to question the importance of finite as virginity in relation to the value of a woman’s body. Through the use of character development, plot, themes, language and style, setting and figurative language, she is able to come up with a true proposal of the both self-value,

The title of the book “Virgins” communicates more than the first sexual act. It depicts the inability to make personal decisions without basing off other people’s opinions and beliefs. The story is an analysis of the progression of two females and their interaction with men. Though different, each girl has a different perception of sexual anatomy and hence Evans is able to communicate his message that virginity or sexuality is something that is a sole decision of someone despite whether they have had vaginal sex or not. Throughout the story, Erica is unsure with men. She lacks sexual determination. While Jasmine feels that sex is something that “he did that to everyone,” (11) when referring to the lifeguard, Erica still believes that one has to make a decision on whom to sleep with. After losing her virginity, Erica loses her naivety and gains full control of the situation to Erica, making her the subject of her own sentence, and allowing her to have total autonomy. She embraces her new sexuality. According to the article “Sexualities”, the genre of virginity loss is considered to be most popular and significant in the 21st century (McAlister 1). The article Gender and the Meaning and Experience of Virginity Loss in the Contemporary United States suggests, “Young women, while more permissive than in previous decades, continued to value virginity and predicate sexual activity on love and committed romantic relationship, whereas young men continued to express disdain for virginity, engage in sexual activity primarily out of curiosity and desire for physical and welcome opportunities for casual sex” (Carpenter 1). This depicts the need for sexual activity rather than a romantic relationship by men and why they may look at women as sexual objects rather than ordinary