The introductory paragraph of Marion established the character of Marion and her sister and early on it is apparent that these girls are being exposed to too much: the imagery of one person on top of another giving a full body massage is almost erotic- that is until you learn that the characters are 11 and 13. The awareness that the narrator has of her mother's mental illness is further example of over exposure, as well as Marion's father kissing them on the lips.
The imagery of the house being a delicate beautiful cottage with its going into disrepair feels a lot like her childhood.
In the second paragraph it is establish that Marion has more of an awareness of sexuality than the narrator, and an interest in appearing older. From the cigarettes that she wants, (specifically from Jack, a man that she gets attention from) to the wearing of bikini tops she seems to crave male attention. The narrator on the other hand does not enjoy this attention and follows Marion's lead, though she seems to be more innocent than Marion and does not wish to have this male attention (when Jack looks at her in the bikini top she feels "heat") This paragraph establishes the distribution of power between Marion and the narrator (Marion has it, the narrator does not)
Welcome to the blog for Prof. John Talbird's English 220 class. The purpose of this site is two-fold: 1) to continue the conversations we start in class (or to start conversations before we get to class) and 2) to practice our writing/reading on a weekly basis in an informal forum.
Aisling: Nice response. I like your distinction between the two young girls. Esp. about how Marion feels differently about sex than Emma. This is further important when Emma gets blamed for knocking out Marion's tooth even though she had been cajoled into it by Marion.
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