Analyse af novellen 'Growing up in the 2nd Millennium'

Stealing is very common nowadays. Everyone has at least stolen a thing or two in life. This action can be done by men, women, elder and even young people. The 2nd Millennium society has made rules to prevent stealing. Many people still do it and stealing has always been a bad choice. If the action of stealing is performed, punishment will be served. This situation is seen in the short story “Growing up in the 2nd Millennium” by Kate Chopin.

The short story “Growing up in the 2nd Millennium” is told by a first-person narrator. The narrator’s name is unknown. The short story begins with in medias res. The first few lines are about the little sister, Michelle. She is a girl who suffers a bad habit of stealing (p1. l.2). Michelle’s parents have failed to realize that their child is becoming a thief, as they are engrossed by other matters (p.1 ll.2-3). Michelle’s habit of stealing started when she was at a friend’s house and the father was there to pick her up, then Mrs. Church found her daughter, Alison’s showering gel in Michelle’s bag. Alison accused Michelle for stealing the gel (p.1 l.11). This situation could have been transformed into something foolish, if only Michelle’s mother was there. Unfortunately for Michelle, the father let his selfishness loose and punished Michelle, in the form of hitting her. The father of narrator and Michelle, is a man, who proves to be nothing more than an unprofessional father. This is seen in this paragraph: I don’t understand. We’ve always given you pocket money.” (p.1 l.20) – This shows that the father really has no experience and doesn’t get the fact, that money doesn’t buy love. The father has shown little to no love and attention to Michelle. This is seen in this paragraph; “For the first time in months, Michelle had got Dad’s full attention” (p1. l.17). The narrator is 14 years old and this comes to light, as it is scripted that he is lascivious because he is “inundated by sex” (p.1 l.3). The narrator’s gender isn’t really specified but it is scripted, that the narrator has a relationship going on with a boy named Gary and the narrator has often conversations about sex and masturbation. This could possibly mean that the narrator is a boy, as boys often tend to speak about sex and masturbation. There is also a chance that the narrator is gay, which is seen when he tells, that Gary is snogging another girl. This makes the narrator jealous, as he gets a low, sickly weight in the stomach. The mother is the only one in the family, which is in a happy mood, most of the times. She is not heavily affected by her daughter’s problems. This is seen in this paragraph; “Mum took another hungry bite of Scotch egg… and seemed to be in a good mood.” (p.2 ll.18-19). The mother isn’t much different from the father. She only cares, when Michelle does something wrong.