THE NEW GIRL

« THE NEW GIRL Nature of the text. This text is an autobiographical short story written by Marc Mitchell and published in True Tales of American Life, a collection of short stories. Summary (résumé). The scene takes place in Alabama, a State located in the South of the USA, in the 1970s.

The story tells an episode of the author’s childhood, that is to say his encounter (rencontre) with a young black girl.

The characters are the narrator, his friend Allison, and a little black girl whose name is not mentioned.

The text shows how the little black girl, who has just moved in, is rejected by the narrator and Allison. Organisation of the text. This text can be divided into three parts: first the circumstances and events until the narrator’s silent contact with the black girl (l.

1-15), then Allison’s reaction towards this girl (l.

16-36), and finally the two white children’s reactions after the black girl has gone away (l.

37-45). Part one. The characters seem to live in a white, middle-class neighbourhood and the story certainly takes place in summer as it is “a hot, bright day” (l.

2), “everything is burning” (l.

2) and Allison’s father is watering the lawn. In the beginning, the atmosphere is friendly.

Allison and the narrator are playing and riding their bikes together.

When the little girl appears, the narrator is the first one to notice her.

At first, he is welcoming: he smiles to her and she smiles back.

He is not prejudiced yet and doesn’t reject her. Part two. However, As soon as Allison saw the black girl, she got very angry and started insulting her, calling her “nigger” .

She became very aggressive and told the girl to go away. On hearing Allison, the narrator couldn’t believe his ears.

He was taken aback (surpris, déconcerté) and didn’t know what to do.

He had never imagined that Allison could utter such offensive words.

As for the black girl, she kept smiling, as if she had heard nothing. Then, as soon as the little black girl realized that Allison had insulted her and told her to go away, she stopped smiling and got scared. As far as the narrator is concerned, he started behaving like Allison.

He copied Allison’s attitude and started being aggressive towards the little black girl.

He didn’t even dare to look her in the eye.

In fact, he sided with Allison: “ I turned back to the girl and twisted my mouth into a sneer, trying to imitate the hatred I had seen on Allison’s face.

I avoided the girl’s eyes.” (l.

26). However, the little black girl didn’t immediately run away.

She started speaking to Allison, as if she wished to make friends with her: “The girl said, “I thought maybe we could play.My name is –” (l.

28). »