Seventeenth Summer

So, I have finally decided and narrowed down what I want to study in my books. I'm going to look at the way the teenage girls in these novels treat their bodies. Girls (and boys) are reading these books and taking some of their cues from these novels, in regards to sexuality, physical health, self-harm etc. I don't really want to call it body image because that feels a bit restrictive, but I'm not sure what to call it. Does this make sense?

So, I am analyzing how the female characters treat their bodies, and I wanted to look at the changes through the decades of YA Lit. So I have a book form each decade, and a few more from the 90's and the 00's, since these are more likely to be read by present generations.

I started with Seventeenth Summer. 1942 folks. Considered one of the first YA novels. Overall, I found it very whimsical and a light, fun read. However it ended a bit abruptly, and there were several instances in the novel where the narrator foreshadows things, that end up not being as dramatic as one would think. But then i have to stop and remind myself, this was 1942, and really, the most exciting thing to take place in a small town such as the one in the novel, would be to go get Cokes at the drugstore. Which they do a lot. I certainly hope they removed the cocaine from the cola before this tykes were drinking so much of it.

So, this girl Angie, has just graduated high school, and will be headed to Chicago in the fall for college. She comes from an upper middle class family, and is the third of four sisters. This book narrates her sister's lives, especially the older twos romantic involvements, as well as her own with Jack, a boy from the local 'public' high school. Her father travels and is only home on the weekends. Her mother is a fairly strong and independent woman, who is obsessed with her garden. She doesn't really think it's proper for Angie to be spending SO much time with Jack, but in the end always allows her to go out with him.

You learn about Angie through the way she talks about other people. Margaret, her oldest sister is beautiful, and intelligent, and witty, and engaged. Her next sister Lorraine, is always experimenting with hairstyles and makeup, and you get the idea that she is not as pretty as Margaret. And Kitty, the youngest, is not old enough to be analyzed much.

Angie is often comparing her self to Jane, a girl in town who once dated Jack, and has beautiful blonde hair and can dance softly, and laughs like a bell. Evidently, Angie finds herself prettier than Lorraine, but not as smooth as Jane.

The most dramatic moment is when Jack drags Angie out to look for firewood, and awkwardly proposes to her, as she is moving to college, and he is moving to Oklahoma with his family. She just cries. But, she ends up going to school and leaves us on the train stating that she'll always remember that seventeenth summer, while clutching Jack's class ring. I really wanted some resolution.

There is no sex in this book. They do kiss, and the do hold hands, but the details are not very detailed. Which is interesting, because the book has so much details about the landscape and nature. It just drips with beautiful language describing her feelings about the lake, and the air, and the garden and the stars, but she it comes to Jack, she doesn't say much. I'm not sure if the intent was to show how confused she was, this was her first relationship, or really what the point was. She doesn't talk about herself much either, just her actions, but not her inner thoughts and feelings really.

So the majority of what I have to study in this novel is the way she describes other women, mostly Margaret, Lorraine and Jane, and base what she must think of herself by what she doesn't say. I sam interested to see how this little technique will change or adapt as I travel through the decades.