Analyse af 'The Sexes' og narrativ stil i noveller

There is, have always been and will always be a significant interaction between the sexes – between men and women. How do they talk to one another, which language do they use and how do they act in each other’s company? When times change – when people change and their norms and values modify, this particular social interaction have shown great tendency towards becoming more and more free and unrestrained. Dorothy Parker’s short story “The sexes” gives us an idea of the relationship between men and women in the 1920s, when she inserts us readers in an argument between two lovers.

These two lovers – the young man and the girl – are the only characters directly involved in the action, and it’s mostly the girl who is conspicuous – mostly due to her personality and other direct and indirect descriptions we get of her character. Among them, she wears a fringed dress, has a handkerchief and besides that, she smokes. She’s presumably from the middleclass environment because of her nice, fashionable clothes and her habit of going to parties and the theatre. – All of these aspects of existence are typical for a “wild” girl in the 1920s, or a so-called flapper, since a handkerchief symbolises femininity and “preciousness”, her smoking habit suggests that she’s glamorous and naughty, and fashionable clothes are also typical traits among flappers.