In this story Berne tries to tell people that everyone has a dark side, and that people shouldn’t deny it. Instead, they should take responsibility for it. She shows that it is very much human nature to have feelings that you don’t like and aren’t proud of. This dark side i

In this story Suzanne Berne tries to tell us all is that it is OK to have feelings that we are ashamed of, that we should just do our best to try and cope with them. She gets this point across very effectively because the story holds such sadness to it--the story is drowning in hurt. It hits close to home and is realistic. This is our world. We created it, and we must live with it.

Luann, the neighbor girl who befriends Marsha, shows behavior throughout the story that also presents a very dark side in another family in the neighborhood. She is a very unhealthy girl for her age. She has mutilated the Barbies that she plays with, cutting off their hair, drawing all over their bodies, sticking pushpins in their eyes. Marsha describes the Barbie saying, “The other doll, however, was a magnificent sight. Luann had cut of all its hair, exposing the roots in its plastic skull, and completely tattooed its body with different colors of Magic Marker. She had drawn snakes around its arms, made its breast into red-and-black targets, given it a verdant bush of green pubic hair surrounding a brown phallic blob. The face was colored half black and half purple. Pushpins stuck out of both eyes” (158). She also demonstrates knowledge of sexual behavior, telling Marsha that a boy’s “thing” looks like a thumb. It is made very obvious that Luann has either been abused or witnessed very violent and sexual interactions in her home.

Marsha also encounters feelings of her own that she is ashamed of. When she is thinking back to her memories of Boyd Ellison she recalls an instance where he was mutilating a praying mantis. She sees them doing this across the street and goes over very interested in what they are doing. Here she reveals some very odd feelings: “Stomach heaving, I drew closer and stared, wanting to get even closer, to peer right into those alien eyes. What I felt, as I stared at the mutilated insect, wasn’t pity; it was closer to a lost word between revulsion and desire. I wanted to put the praying mantis into my mouth” (133). Only when her brother comes and yells at her calling her actions disgusting, does she realize what she is doing. She starts to hate Boyd

Some topics in this essay:
Boyd Ellison, Suzanne Berne, Crime Neighborhood, Magic Marker, Unfortunately Marsha, Spring Hill, Washington DC, boyd ellison, suzanne berne, marsha’s mother, berne tries tell, watergate scandal, ashamed try, throughout story, praying mantis, spring hill, crime neighborhood, berne tries,