<p> THE NEW GIRL</p><p>Nature of the text.</p><p>This text is an autobiographical short story written by Marc Mitchell and published in True Tales of American Life, a collection of short stories gathered by Paul Auster, one of the best- known contemporary Americar writers.</p><p>Summary (résumé).</p><p>The scene takes place in Alabama, a State located in the South uf 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.</p><p>Organisation of the text.</p><p>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).</p><p>Part one.</p><p>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.</p><p>Part two.</p><p>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) Allison’s reaction shows that she is prejudiced, intolerant, narrow-minded, contemptuous and full of hatred: “Her eyes were drawn into slits… (l. 23) – … the hatred I had seen on Allison’s face. (l. 26) – Allison spat back, ‘I don’t play with niggers.’” (l. 29) We can notice that the narrator says that he “avoided the girl’s eyes” (l. 27). The explanation is that he must have felt ashamed of himself. He didn’t want to be aggressive towards the black girl, but as he wanted to keep Allison as his friend, he imitated herwithout realizing what he was doing. This passage is full of hatred and racist feelings. Indeed, as soon as Allison saw the little black girl, she became aggressive and uttered very offensive, cruel words. She insulted her. She didn’t even try to get to know the little girl or make friends with her. Allison’s attitude shows how prejudiced and intolerant she was. In the first passage, however, she looked like an ordinary little girl who was having fun playing with her friend. The atmosphere was peaceful and friendly then. The girl must have felt scared and taken aback by the two white children’s attitude towards her. She probably did not understand why Allison had been so mean to her, and why the narrator, who had been so nice at first, had suddenly become so aggressive. The narrator watched the little black girl go back home. Then, a few moments later, as he was still watching her house, he saw a brown hand pull back the curtains a little and he realized that the girl’s mother was looking at them.</p><p>Part 3.</p><p>In this part, the narrator, who apparently hasn’t fully understood what has just happened, asks Allison who the girl was. In her answer (l 39-40), Allison shows that she is clearly under her mother’s influence and her words reflect her mother’s intolerance and narrow-mindedness. She just keeps repeating her mother’s words without being able to explain them to the narrator. She cannot think for herself. When the narrator said “Niggers are stupid. Maybe they’ll move.” (l. 43), he definitely sided with Allison. He must have been influenced by her. He did so to show that, as Allison’s friend, he thought like her and had the same opinions about black people. Today, he must feel remorseful about what he did. He must feel guilty because he knows that what he and Allison did was wrong.</p><p>Conclusion.</p><p>This text shows that a few years after the Civil Rights Movement (voir fiche donnée en cours), racist feelings were still common place (banals) in the south of the USA. It also shows that children, who are innocent at first as the narrator’s initial reaction shows, can be perverted by the adults’ intolereance, like Allison who has been contaminated by her mother’s racism.</p>