A Girl Like Me Analysis

The realities of city living have influenced literature, and literature could be a special "map" of the urban space. The city and urban experiences are figured in Xi Xi 's work ("A Girl Like Me") and they have been presented in several ways, showing that her work has a strong sense of contemporaneity.

Xi Xi depicted and criticized the social condition of the city euphemistically:

"I have thought of changing jobs; surely I am capable of doing the kind of work that other girls do? There 's no way that I could be something like a teacher now, or a nurse, or a secretary, or an office-clerk; but couldn 't I work in a shop, maybe sell bread in a bakery…. Or what about some kind of domestic work? A girl like me only needs three meals a day and a

This is the gender stereotypes. The expectations on gender roles appear to be the norm in the city. Inside the story, the girl has thought of fitting in the norms: doing the jobs that are exclusive for female, such as teacher and nurse. But she did not devote herself to these jobs, as she mentioned, "There 's no way that I could be something like….". In fact, the author did not explain the reason for the girl to feel "there 's no way". But she uses the girl 's rejection of traditional female jobs to metaphorize the social condition in the city and to express her attitude towards this: gender is always a major consideration of women when choosing a job. The choice of the leading lady in the story shows that women shouldn 't take this factor into their own consideration to overthrow the phenomenon of gender stereotypes in the traditional society. As a matter of fact, it is not impossible for her to enters upon the traditional female jobs, the truth is that she is not willing to do so. Xi Xi even used "only needs three meals a day and a roof over her head" as the principle of choosing a job, to emphasize the real intention of working is to make a living and it has nothing to do with the gender.

Besides, Xi Xi also pictured the city experience of women in "A Girl Like Me". In the text, the author did not mention the actual age of the girl, but she uses dialog to make

At first it was just that they didn 't like my eyes and hands, but gradually they came to fear them; and at first it was only my eyes and hands that they feared, but later it was my whole body. I have watched them leaving me one after another…."

The discrimination against occupation has been a social phenomenon in the Chinese society that women suffer the most and the girl 's experience is the case. It is observable from their choice of occupation, social status and the subordination of female to male. In truth, these discriminations imply men 's superiority to women. When this kind of value and people 's consciousness go through introjection, it makes women feel inferior. In the story, the girl always uses negative words like "pale", "sad" to describe herself. These words with strong emotional coloring have proved her feelings under discrimination. This city experience is figured in the story: Being a mortuary cosmetologist, the girl holds the sense of inferiority. Thus, she keeps evading the issue, concealed her occupation and her love for Xia.

Inside "A Girl Like Me", Xi Xi depicted urban life, problems and feelings that women encountered in the society. It is a story that depicts reality as it appears, figured out the city