Analysis of Alison Espach's The Adults.

by fnatalie93 (student)

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Ford

Natalie Ford

Mrs. Szatzschneider

English 101

November 6, 2012

A Teenage Girl in a Male Driven World

Emily is a 15 year old freshmen whose life is about to become very complicated. In a very short period of time her dad cheats on her mom with her neighbor (Mrs. Resnick). Mrs. Resnick is found to be pregnant and Emily witnesses Mr.Resnick commit suicide. Emily’s parents get a divorce and her dad leaves the country for a new job. Meanwhile, Emily becomes very close with one of her male teachers and begins sleeping with him because unlike her father he is an older male figure that makes her feel secure about herself. As a result, Emily not only struggles with trying to find her place in the male driven society, but also with getting through the series of unfortunate events that keep her from being an average teenage girl.
It is at Emily’s fathers’ 50th birthday party that Emily discovers that her father is cheating on her mother. Her mother invited all of their neighbors, family and friends over for a cocktail party. Emily doesn’t really want to talk to anyone there accept Mark. Mark is her neighbor and her best friend whom she has had a crush on for a while now. They venture off into the woods to get away from everyone and talk. By this time it has become dark. Mark leans in to kiss her but right as he is about to they hear a loud noise and both turn to find her dad and his mom making out. They both sneak around them and decide not to tell anyone. After all Emily’s dad is leaving soon for Prague soon for his new job and they are not going with him. She doesn’t want her mom any more devastated then she already is. Men are so heartless and careless towards women. Her father is already leaving her mom for good and now he’s going to cheat on her? When he married her he promised to be with her until death parted them and to be faithful in their relationship. He’s defiantly not falling through with his promise, but it’s still ok in our society. When a man is sleeping around or cheating on his wife it is not thought of as a big deal but if a woman does it they are called a whore and are forever frowned upon. Emily’s father isn’t even viewed as a bad person. He just moves on with his life because after all he is leaving soon and none of this will affect him anymore.

As a result of marks mom’s pregnancy with Emily’s dad’s baby and his father committing suicide marks life completely changes. He starts skipping school, doing drugs, drinking all the time, and smoking heavily every day. For some unknown reason he takes his anger for Emily’s father out on Emily. They quit talking for the most party and only speak at school when they have to.

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In school Emily becomes friends with a group of girls she refers to as “the other girls.” They all have an obsession with this teacher they have named Mr. Basketball. They all fantasize about him; especially Janice (her best friend). Mr. Basketball lives down the street from Emily. She becomes very close with him and he volunteers to start giving her rides to school. Emily becomes even closer to him as the school year goes on. One night at the Halloween dance everyone had been drinking and Emily and Mr. Basketball went into a room to talk. They we’re about to have sex when “the other girls” walk in on them. He threatens them and says he won’t tell that they’ve been drinking if they promise never to say another word about what they saw ever again. They all agree and surprisingly keep their promise. Emily and Mr. Basketballs relationship continues for years. They have sex all the time: At school, at his house, and even in his car. It’s primarily what their relationship revolves around. Janice disowns her and refuses to speak to her because she says she was “in love” with Mr. Basketball when her relationship with him was really only a fantasy. Emily sneaks out of her house and stays after school all the time to be with him. I feel that Emily is doing this all to cope with everything that is going on with her mother and father and because she feels like it’s what is expected of her.

Women in our culture are expected to do things even if they don’t want to, to feel respected or fit in. Emily’s father was just using Mrs. Resnick (Marks mom) and she let him because he made her feel wanted and loved. Emily has sex with Mr. Basketball because she wants him to like her. She feels like it’s expected of her to do what he wants for him to like her. She wants to be viewed as mature and not like a little kid so she does things she might not feel comfortable doing to show him that she’s not a little girl. Even though he claims that he loves her, he wouldn’t stay with her if she wasn’t giving him what he wanted. Emily is with him this whole time and no one knows about it. Not her mom, or the other teachers, or other students; just her and Mr. Basketball. Women in our culture are view as sexual figures. They are viewed by most men as just a piece of meat. They are expected to look pretty, and give men whatever they desire because they are the “Dominant sex.” Why should women have to do what men want? Women can be just as powerful as men. Emily shouldn’t have to feel like she has to keep sleeping with her teacher to keep calling him her own.

In the end, Emily’s relationship with Mr. Basketball ends and she goes away to college. She moves to Prague with her father and studies for a degree in interior design. Emily experienced a lot of things the average teenage girl wouldn’t experience over the nine year period written about in the book. But, even through all the complicated things that happened in her life while she was in high school (causes by men), she managed to find who she really wanted to be and got her life back to normal in time to graduate college.

Works Cited

Espach, Alison. “The Adults.” New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.