David Updike's Summer Girl, Lust Girl

Summer Girl, Lust Girl

In David Updike’s “Summer”, Homer vacations at a beautiful lake with his friend Fred’s family and experiences his summer time with Fred’s sister Sandra. He was attracted by Sandra’s pure appearance; however, he is too shy and timid to express his unfamiliar feelings to her. Sandra has few senses about Homer’s feelings since she is innocent and lacking of awareness. In Susan Minot’s “Lust”, the protagonist loses herself in lust. She keeps searching love and fulfillments among different boys. She is addicted to meeting and adopting her partners although the relationships with them bring her few gratifications and a never-ending void. In David Updike’s short story female sexuality is portrayed as naïve, innocent, and pure, whereas in “Lust” female sexuality is casual, promiscuous and hollow.
Sandra’s naivete is shown on her childish appearance and conservative dress. In Homer’s view, “[when Sandra] first came in her face was faintly
In the whole story, she always feeling herself “become a cave” and has a feeling “like watered-down stew” and “petal gets plunked” (798,799). In fact, cave stands for emptiness; watered-down stew refers to a feeling of depression and feebleness; petal gets plunked relate to injury, pain, and loss of dignity. At this point, the author attempts to describe her as a superficial girl who seeks for love and fulfillment and only obtains never-ending void. These temporary pleasures actually only bring her a sense of loss and emptiness. Also, the protagonist is nameless, and at the end of the story she says that “[her partners’] blank look tells [her] that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. [She seems] to have disappeared” (802). Minot uses the symbolism to make her existence miserable, ironic, and dispensable, highlighting her promiscuity and inanity female