When you look at the titles Why I Like Country Music and Elbow Room you would not expect any likeness between the two stories other than the fact that they have come out of the same book by James A. McPherson, however, there are many similarities along with many dissimilarities. The characters in both stories are identified as having their own struggles and paths. The first similar feature between McPherson’s nameless main character from Why I Like Country Music and the character Virginia Valentine from Elbow Room is that both grew up in a different small southern town in the southern United States. In these southern states, they were sheltered and “imprisoned” by their small town societies. This is also where their first dissimilarly comes …show more content…
The nameless male character from Why I Like Country Music married a woman named Gloria, who grew up in a different type of surroundings. His wife was a city girl, born and raised in New York were as he grew up in a small town in South Carolina. He met and married her in Manhattan. Both Virginia Valentine and her husband Paul Frost were raised in a small town. Although her husband was raised in Kansas they both had their perceptions shaped by the small country town life. The two characters’ have different personas and don’t have much common aspects other than they are of the same race. Virginia to the outside world is a tough girl, but really she is a softy. She tries to conceal her real self, making it her “secret self”. She is also a storyteller, just like other people who came from places like her. From all the traveling she has done Virginia had learned how to accept people for who they are. The main character of Why I Like Country Music is laid back, selfish, and stubborn and is someone who liked to get what he wanted. He might even be a little emotional and sensitive. As a kid if he did not get his way he would throw tantrums. Now as an adult, he tries to hide his country side, not letting any of the northerners see