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Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

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Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

The novel “Big Mouth and Ugly Girl” written by Joyce Carol Oates in 2002 is a story about two American high school students who get very involved in each other’s lives by an accidental incident. Ursula Riggs is a 16 year-old high school student at a school called Rocky River High in the US. She is not like any other teenage-girl, but is actually quite a tomboy. She is not very popular at her school, probably because she is a girl with a whole lot of attitude. Ursula is a very sporty girl and has always been the best player at her basketball team. When she is on the field, she is a warrior woman. She does not care about anything but her own success on the team and she will practice any method to win a game. When she is in this particular state of mind, she refers to herself as Ugly Girl. When she puts on this Ugly Girl-mask, it is because she is aware of her own sensitivity and tries to stay strong by putting the worst label on herself. If she is already aware of the fact that she is ugly and an outcast, how can anyone else hurt her by saying these things? Ursula Riggs began to develop a womanly body far too early and that probably caused her to quit her swimming team. She was not comfortable with her new body and started to put herself up against the rest of the girls on the team, while they still looked like girls their age were supposed to look like. This feeling of being an outsider is a character trait that later on is essential for the beginning of her relationship with Matt. When it comes to Ursula’s younger sister, she is very protective and caring. Her little sister is the only thing in the world that has always supported her and admired her for who Ursula really is, “Everybody in the family said Lisa ‘looked up to me’ so I’d better be a good example for her” (p. 46). Ursula has her little sister’s full trust and

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