Miraville Character Analysis

Throughout the first three stages, both Mirabella and her sister Jeanette are compared to each other because of the differences in their ways to adapt to human culture. They are compared when getting nametags, learning to walk, and learning to ride bicycles.

To begin with, in stage one when Jeanette receives her nametag she is very cooperative and lets the nuns slap the nametag on her. To prove that this happens, the narrator says, “She slapped on a nametag…” (pg 239). This shows how well Jeanette is adapting to human culture. However, when Mirabella gets her nametag she becomes very uncooperative and runs aways from the nuns for two hours. She is eventually tranquilized, pinned and given the name tag. To prove this, the narrator says,

While being taught, Mirabella refuses to learn and she still walks on all fours. The narrator says, “... still loping on all fours…” (pg 241). That quote shows that Mirabella is still being uncooperative and she's not progressing in her adaptation to human culture. Unlike Mirabella, Jeanette listens to the nuns and learns to walk on two feet. To show that this is true, the narrator says, “Jeanette spiffed her penny loafers…” (pg 241). This shows that Jeanette is progressing more than Mirabella in their adaptation into human culture.

Finally, in stage three the girls learn to ride bicycles. In this stage, Jeanette learns to ride the bicycle unlike Mirabella who just chases after the girls roaring their names as they ride past her. To prove this, the narrator says, “Mirabella would run after the bicycles, growling out our old names” (pg 246). To prove that Jeanette knows how to ride a bike the narrator says, “We’d ride bicycles uphill…” (pg 246). This is another stage where Jeanette is having more success than Mirabella.
In conclusion, in the first three stages Mirabella and Jeanette are compared to each other because of their different ways of trying to adapt. They get nametags, they get lessons on how to walk on two feet, and they learn to ride a