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Debbie and Julie in the big city
Noisy, messy, dirty, erratic, too crowded, scary and polluted are just a few things people that don’t live in big cities may describe big cities as. What would ever make a girl who has lived safely in a London suburb with her parents all of her childhood, want to come back to a city like London when she has experienced giving birth to a child in a derelict shed with sleet outside, only accompanied by a poor dog, lived with prostitutes and drug dealers? Can the big city offer a richer life with excitement instead of safeness in spite of the many negative sides?
Debbie and Julie is a fictional text written by Doris Lessing. It is written with a 3rd person narrator whose omniscience is limited to Julie. The short story follows the teenage girl Julie who has run away from home and gone to London in order to hide her pregnancy from her parents. Here she gives birth alone before returning to her parents.
Julie is the protagonist of the story. She is a lean teenager and due to her pregnancy has left her home in a suburb leaving behind her parents and her school. Julie definitely wasn’t completely happy with her life in the suburb with her parents. She has even felt irritation towards her parents. We get to see this when the narrator tells us, “... noting that already the raucous angry irritation her parents always made her feel was back, and strong.” On page 101 in line 8. She doesn’t live an exciting life in her house. Each and every day is a routine. They have perfectly timed meals, tea, biscuits and coffee at the exact same time. Tenderness and love aren’t a part of the life with her parents. “I wish I could just snuggle up to Mum and she could hold me and I could go to sleep ... In this family they simply did not touch each other”. Unable to snuggle and cuddle with her mom in bed she has a panda teddy bear as a substitute. That being said, it doesn’t mean that they fight in the family instead. Julie’s parents never raise their voices at each other and they never even argue either. Being exact the same types, Julie describes the situation as if her parents cancel each other out. “It was as if they had switched themselves off”. It is almost as if they aren’t in a family. Surely, they love each other, however, they don’t have the intimacy a family usually does and should. Julie’s mother would never walk in on Julie taking a bath and always carefully knock at the door to her room before entering. Her parents don’t share a bed but instead have twin beds with a night table between them. This obviously shows us the lack of intimacy and love in the relationship between the parents.
Staying at Debbie’s place is a completely new experience and quite opposite of what Julie has been used to. [..] Debbie is an escort girl living in London. While Julie was taking a bath Debbie would often come in and sit on the loo and chat with her. Modesty isn’t an issue at Debbie’s place at all. People will often run around with little or no clothes at all. People may also fight, kiss, argue etc. They can show emotions to each other, unlike at Julie’s place that is almost emotionally sterile. The relationship between Debbie and Julie is a special one. Debbie takes care of Julie after she finds her standing pregnant on a station in London. She gives her a place to be, takes care of her and pays everything for her. Debbie will never let Julie pay for anything and never asks for anything in return. Debbie becomes a great friend of Julie’s but she also acts like a mother figure. She is protective towards Julie and shows her the meaning of real intimacy and love. They seemingly don’t have much in common. What ties the two of them together is Julie’s pregnancy. “It was not she, Julie, who had earned five months of Debbie’s time love and protection, it was pregnant Julie, helpless and alone”. Julie notes that Debbie most likely has been in a situation similar to the one Julie is in. Debbie probably identifies with Julie. She knows how it’s to be in her situation and therefore helps her out. As the title hints, the relationship between the two of them is the most central theme in the story. It’s ironic that Debbie, who has taken on a mothering role, isn’t there to help Julie when she has to give birth. Julie’s substitute mother has sort of abandoned her in her time of greatest need. This is similar to the way Julie abandons her own newborn child. Julie is aware of the fact that she won’t see Debbie again. Debbie has taught her the cost of things, and what Julie has to pay in return for all Debbie has done for her was that she would let Debbie take care of the pregnant Julie.
The only one Julie has at her side when she is giving birth is a poor dog. However, this dog proves to make quite an impression on her. Before leaving the flat Julie had been walking stressed past other people in the flat. None of them paid any attention to her and didn’t notice how she was soaking wet from sweat. When Julie gets to the derelict shed she believes that the dog has sympathy for her. She feels so very lonely when she is about to give birth but the dog gives her some comfort. “... and she was grateful for that, pleased the dog was there.”
It had been Julie’s plan all along to leave the baby so that somebody could find it. However, it was not her plan to gain affection for the baby. She tries not to look at it but she can’t help considering what could have been if she had kept her baby. Julie has an aunt who once got a child at a young age as well. She, however, decided to keep her baby. In spite of her attempts, she has gotten attached to her baby.
When Julie returns to her parents after 5 months of absence, she has changed in several ways. Before she ran away she found her father intimidating. When she returns she gets aware of the fact that her father is simply just an elderly grey man. She also gets to see her parents vulnerable, crying in front of her. This also fuels Julie’s speculation of whether she was right to run away or not. Perhaps her parents wouldn’t have kicked her out if she had told them that she was pregnant after all. Nevertheless, she doesn’t explain that she was pregnant and that the child on the television was indeed hers. She considers having the baby at her place but she makes no attempt to get it back. Instead, she decides to go back to London as soon as she has finished her school. She sees bigger opportunities in London and no longer feels at home in the suburb. Just like in the extract “It Does Pump Desire”. The extract comes from Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz. The extract shows the immediate impression the big city gives to those who are not used to the grandeur and excitement of the big city. After having spent a while in the big city Julie can no longer see the beauty in living in the suburbs. As she gets home she doesn’t note any of the things she may have enjoyed about the suburbs. She instead notes all of the things that irritate her about living with her parents. She feels able to express herself more in the big city of London. She has grown fond of it, even though she has been around prostitutes, drug dealers and people who didn’t take much notice of her. Her goal isn’t just to get away from her parents but London is exactly where she wants to go. Just as she grew attached to her baby quickly, she also grew attached to London during her brief stay there. The big city is exactly what Julie wants. Outsiders may describe big cities as noisy and disturbing, but that is seemingly what Julie wants it to be. “She thought of Aunt Jessie’s house. She had always enjoyed that house. It occurred to her now that Debbie’s place and Aunt Jessie’s had a lot in common – noisy, disturbing, exciting”. She wants her life to be different from that of her parents’. Instead of it being a routine she wants it to be erratic, and exciting, something she feels the suburb can’t offer her. She has desires that only the big city can offer.
Life in the big city may be tough but some people would rather seek out excitement than feeling safe. City folks don’t have to be stressed and shallow and life in a big exciting city can for Julie be much richer than the safe and routine-like life in the suburb. In the city Julie meets affection of the likes she hasn’t experienced before, and that may as well make her want to come back to London to experience something similar to what she did during her five month stay at Debbie’s place. A life where two days aren’t the same, a life that she hopes will be full of affection and excitement.