Joseph Jones

Professor Ditch

English 115

30 October 2017

Finding ourselves

With a lot going on in the world it's hard for people to let out what's been holding them

back. Not everyone is bold enough just release that type of information these thoughts. In the

book Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , the characters have a lot of things they are

holding in but they just don't exactly how to let it out. For a example some characters have

feelings for one another but doesn't know exactly how to approach each other with the whole

situation. Now since theyre trying to figure out how to approach things between each other, they

also have to figure out how to conform towards their gender norms finding your gender norms is

basically determining how the males and females should think overall. Other examples can be

how Mark and Juliet can fix these issues. Overall people have problems , but don't know how to

approach or handle these problems, soon Mark and Juliet will break those barriers and succeed

with the problems.

In addition , with the characters having these issues showing their true colors , not all

them have similarities. Everyone has their differences with the feelings or just finding

themselves. Characters like Juliet and Mark show a little bit of being radical. The reason with

that being said is because they both have social changes in throughout the book. Also they're

both trying to break free but just don't know how to get out of that little bubble of theres. The

social descriptions with Juliet is she basically telling the reader that generally females are the a
part of the weak and timid. Also she describes how most men are more dominant over most

females. In the article Becoming Members of Society by Aaron Devor (Devor 38) the quote

states The clusters of social definitions identifies persons gender and are collectively known as

femininity and masculinity , such as images of one another with masculinity usually

characterized by dominance and aggression , and femininity by passive and submission. With

that being stated it shows how people can get judge by others and the people who are doing the

judging doesn't really care about that significant other. On the other hand most people such as

men can take things like that because if they didn't then people would think theyre feminine.

Now for Juliet, shes having difficulty figuring things out all because he has too much stress on

her mind. She talks to other characters to see if she can get more advice on how to manage things

or what she should be doing. She does a lot of traveling , just to escape Guernsey because it is

just too much going on there and she cant handle it. Some characters manage to just have tunnel

vision on the happiness in their lives but juliet seem not to focus on just her happiness.

Not to mention , the big guy Mark. Mark is the guy thats deeply in love with juliet then

conforms towards his gender norms. Some good examples of Mark showing how to break

through all the hardship and learn to correctly express to people about everything.He feels that he

couldn't express to people before because of his insecurity. Mark isnt necessarily trying to break

free, he wants to give Juliet the attention she deserves. Also with him being a little lost on him

not getting the understandings from Juliet he doesn't really know how to approach her and ask

her, basically like on what he should do as for aa getting what he wants from Juliet. Mark tends

to show more and more masculine ways to prove himself to Juliet. In the article Becoming

Members of Society by Aaron Devor (Devor 42) the quote stated Persons who communicate

an air of authority or a readiness for aggression by standing and moving forcefully also tend to
appear more masculine. Also Mark is very impatient , so he shows more dominance. Also with

him being misleading on his judgements can ruin everything up for him. With him being

misjudged make it think that maybe this whole thing with juliet isnt meant to be. After being

turned down by Juliet with the proposal , he tends to get and angry and shocked because he

thought the answer would be a yes. That's an act of dominance because what he can't have

make him very angry and frustrated with the whole situation. His whole character represents his

life and fame that he couldve gave juliet but juliet tend not to like that whole idea.

To add on, Mark is very impatient and shows more dominance just to get the attention.

(Shaffer 153) stated by Mark do you think going to sit back and let you go? That is showing

how submissive Mark is. Also with him being misleading on his judgements can ruin everything

up for him. With him being misjudged make it think that maybe this whole thing with juliet isnt

meant to be. After being turned down by Juliet with the proposal , he tends to get and angry and

shocked because he thought the answer would be a yes. That's an act of dominance because

what he can't have make him very angry and frustrated with the whole situation. His whole

character represents his life and fame that he couldve gave juliet but juliet tend not to like that

whole idea.

Not to mention with the war going around theyre time ( Shaffer 18), Juliet is showing

more and more on how her character is more timid. All because of the war she gets in her

feelings and just confused about everything. She has Mark to handle along with other concerns

she has to take care of. Juliet is the type to have all these issues but will soon know how to solve

them. At the end of the day shes a female and females in general already go through a lot

throughout their lives. Showing femininity to others can tell your whole personality , but I stated
 Not everyone is the same. Juliet has her own perks when it comes down to this conforming

towards gender concept. She as a strong women already have a lot going on , she just needs the

time to gather herself before she does anything else. She feels that no man can take care of her

but her. She doesnt care how wealthy you are or how much fame you have either. She also

experience a lot of paths she can take to get to where she wants to be mentally. At times juliet

doesn't see her true issues when it's right there in front her , and doesn't take the opportunity on

how fix her problems.

Most importantly , I feel like they both found their gender norms. Now Mark , more

never had changed he was always himself. With him being masculine and showing his

intentions with juliet , he finally let her know exactly what to do with Mark as for as them to

being together. So Mark took matter into his own hands. He still tries and tries to accomplish his

goals with everything that includes juliet presents. In article Night to His Day by Judith

Lorber on page 21 the quote stated one way of choosing people for the different task of society

is on the basis of their talents , motivation and competence and their demonstrated

achievements. Mark shows a lot of effort with doing what he feels like he should do and finding

the time for Juliet. Not a lot of men can do that , if they seen any sign that they tend to just forget

about everything and move on with their lives.

Although these characters have these internal issues and these battles , they end up

working things out in the end on (Shaffer 271) Juliet did surprise me then-she turned around to

me and gave me that grin she has, the one that made me first like her so much. Mark and Juliet

had to battle these issues because they had things they didnt know about themselves. All they

had to do was to find themselves and figure it out. Both had a lot of stress on their minds and

couldn't seem quite to find out these issues. When juliet lost her home she had to pave ways to
happiness. It was hard for her to do that because she had to move to another country and

basically start from the beginning. Luckily she had her best friend Sophie with her once she

moved. They both started to work with each other and attended boarding school together. So

there was a downfall to everything about Juliet but she seemed to break free and just finding

herself. Now on the other hand with Mark , he just wants the girl he really loves. He will go out

the his way to make that significant person happy and make them see that he not just a waste of

time and actually will do whatever it takes. With him being confused on everything he just wants

answers at this point in time. He doesnt want to give up on her because he truly knows how

Juliet feels but he has to convince to her that hes really the one for her and no anyone else. Juliet

just doesnt know how to break free but eventually when she finds herself she will know how

deal with these feeling of hers.

In other words, with Mark and Juliet breaking free and conforming, that shows how the

readers, how Mark and Juliet can manage to get through the struggles and do what they think it is

right to do. One another may not agree all the time and the other might agree , its not like juliet

and mark were arguing , they couldnt really find anytime for each other . So therefore that tend

to cause some tension with Mark. I can see where Mark would get frustrated at , it just seems

like he wasting his time because he don't know whether to continue this whole thing or just end

it. All the commotion was all based on the miscommunication. (Shaffer 99) Dear juliet- youre

being elusive and i don't like it.

In conclusion , I chose these character because I felt that I can explain the prompt better

with them better and give a better explanation on them. They finally broke free from what they

been holding back from each other. Especially from Juliet because she had so much going on

with the war, traveling and etc. Mark was all confused about everything and why it seemed like
juliet was really paying attention to him like he wanted. Everything just takes some time for a

couple to figure things out together. Now they both had soe radical moments especially when it

came down them communicating. You may be shy at times but you gotta show your true colors

if you want things to work. Both of those characters found their femininity and masculine ways

to help solve the issues. Once communicating get it involve thing tend to change and actually

work out in the end of it. No one wants to be mislead and just wasting time with an individual ,

when they can actually end up giving someone else the attention. If one another did not finally

open up about things they wouldn't be anything , no relationship, nothing just non existing

relationship. Some may just need to take baby steps with their significant other and not rush

anything the other partner wouldnt want to do. When miscommunication happens more and

likely someone is going to express their feminine ways. Then some else is going to start to show

their dominance towards the other. No one likes to be unhappy , everyone wants to be on the

same page and be on a good vibe and not have bad vibes.

Work Cited

Rachael Groner and John F. Ohara Composing Gender : Night to his day pg 21

Rachael Groner and John F. Ohara Composing Gender : Becoming members of

society pages 42-43

 Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie

Society