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Racism In The Semplica Girl Diaries By George Saunders

1536 Words7 Pages

Silent Racism
George Saunders ' "The Semplica Girl Diaries", is written in the style of a diary in which the narrator of the diary is a lower middle-class father is just trying to make ends meet. The father seems to have good intentions by always putting his family 's happiness as his priority; however, the consequences of his actions never seem to be quite as good. One lucky day he happens to stumble upon a winning lottery ticket and as expected, he spends it on objects he believes will make his family happy. Yet in the end it turns out that winning the lottery was more of a curse than a blessing. One of the biggest purchases from his lottery money was four Semplica Girls, who essentially hung out in the lawn like pieces of decoration. Besides Eva, one of the narrator 's daughters, the ethical legitimacy of owning people as a decoration was seldom brought up; because at owning Semplica Girls was simply a normal practice and nobody questioned it. Eventually, the Semplica Girls managed to escape, and a detective named Jerry was put on the case to get the girls back. While the Semplica Girls were the main focus of questionable ethics in this society, they were not the only one. Throughout, "The Semplica Girl Diaries", the author George Saunders shows that different forms of racism are consequences of a traditionalist way of thinking. Towards the end of the story, a dialogue between Jerry and the narrator highlights Saunders ' message by juxtaposing a more overt racist, Jerry,

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