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Red from Green
It’s not easy growing up. Finding out who you are and discovering the hard truths about life. Inevitably we will all have to someday be able to stand on our own two feet, while in the process discovering things about ourselves such as our sexuality and where we want to head in life. In the short story “Red from Green” by Maile Meloy, It is at this crossroad that our protagonist, Sam, finds herself. She is forced to see herself and her father in a new light following a float trip where a grown man shows an interest in her.
“Red from Green” is narrated from a third person perspective, and from Sam’s perspective. Sam is a 15-year old American teenager from Montana who is about to start her sophomore year. Because Sam’s mother died she lives alone with her father which has created a strong bond between them. Therefore they did not like to talk much about the fact that Sam had been offered a scholarship to a boarding school. She had not decided to take it yet and she was unsure how her father felt about it, “Applying had been her father’s idea, but now he looked dismayed every time the subject came up” (p. 1, l. 6-7). Sam and her father had been on this kind of float trip many times before, although this time her uncle and his client joined them. She thought the purpose of the trip might in fact be to gain the goodwill of this new client, “…it was the feeling she got - that they were going for the client” (p. 1, l. 15). The client, Layton, very quickly made an impression on her by complimenting her teeth which it seems she is not used to, this is made clear later when she ponders on his compliment, “And she was wondering if she really had perfect teeth, and if anyone but adults would ever care” (p. 2, l. 62-63). Layton plays a major role in the development of Sam and her father’s relationship. Because of him she becomes aware of her own sexuality, “His

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