The Girls

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to sexual abuse and coercion.

The Girls explores the perils teenage girls face. The novel is told through the point of view of Evie, a middle-aged woman who looks back on her adolescence to analyze the crises of teenage infatuation, impulsivity, and identity.

As a teenager, Evie is typical in her lack of self-awareness. She is old enough to analyze and emulate adult behavior, but she is inexperienced and lacks autonomy. Like most teenagers, Evie is bored of her suburban life and feels ashamed of her averageness. She has internalized society’s messages that she needs to be pretty and pleasant for boys, that she isn’t anyone until a boy notices her. She says, “All that time I had spent readying myself, the articles that taught me life was really just a waiting room until someone noticed you—the boys had spent that time becoming themselves” (28). Being taught, either directly or indirectly, that identity is formed by attention from other people is a peril many teenage girls still face; Evie notes that boys don’t have to be secretive or manipulative; they can be themselves, and society accepts certain behaviors from them. Evie doesn’t know what kind of girl or woman she wants to become, so her adolescence is heralded by an identity crisis.

Because of this vacuum of identity, Evie attaches herself to women she finds invigorating, sexy, interesting, and different. Despite the obvious signs that all is not well with Suzanne and her lifestyle, Suzanne’s eccentric and wild aesthetic attracts Evie. Suzanne exudes confidence, which Evie lacks. Evie becomes entranced by Suzanne because she desires the quality of easy confidence and a lack of concern for societal norms. In Suzanne, Evie sees personality and identity. What’s more, Evie is lonely because she is struggling with her parents’ divorce and a boredom with her school friends. Suzanne’s lifestyle, in which all types of people live and work together on a ranch, impresses Evie. Suzanne lives in radical ways, and through this lifestyle, Evie finds a way to be.

But because Evie is a teenage girl, she is vulnerable to danger because others can see how lost she is. Without a strong sense of self, she is susceptible to falling into damaging relationships. Suzanne immediately places Evie in danger by bringing her to the ranch. Suzanne can sense Evie’s desire to be a part of her world, and she takes advantage of Evie’s loneliness. Russell also preys on young girls who don’t have a structured sense of self. He uses sexuality to coerce Evie and other young girls into being a part of his following. He has a charm and ability to sense what a young and broken girl wants or needs, and he gives it to them through the appearance of focused attention and manipulates Evie into sexual acts. That Evie steals from her mother, breaks into other people’s homes, and commits herself to the lifestyle of the ranch demonstrates how much she wants to be accepted. But Evie wants to be accepted for someone she isn’t; she isn’t authentically like Suzanne even though she can see parallels between them. The perils teenage girls face drive Evie to Suzanne and to Russell because she believes her life of stability is boring and that attention from others defines her. She doesn’t yet realize that her life of stability is a gift and that it will take years for her to figure out who she truly is.

Identity is at the core of The Girls; nearly everyone is testing identities to discover what fits. Suzanne, Tamar, and Evie literally try on identities through wearing other people’s clothes or makeup. The process of establishing an identity within themselves that isn’t shaped by others’ perception or attention is a common thread for the young women of The Girls.

This experience of establishing identity is also reflected in Sasha, whom Evie meets when Evie is an adult and Sasha is a teenager. Sasha, like Evie once was, is self-conscious, lost, and looking for purpose. Sasha finds her purpose in Julian just as Evie once found her purpose in Suzanne. Like Suzanne, Julian is unkind and abusive. Sasha refuses to acknowledge Julian’s behavior because, like Evie, she substitutes sex for love and craves his attention. Teenagers have a heightened sense of emotion because of their brain development; they experience emotions in extreme ways. There is an irrationality to the teenage experience that is exacerbated in some teenage girls because of the social pressures they experience, and Sasha demonstrates this irrationality by accepting Julian’s behavior and rejecting Evie’s help.