Hiding in Cheesy's Bedroom
An analysis and interpretation of Anna Davis’ short story ‘Hiding in Cheesy’s Bedroom’
Adolescents are constantly seeking boundaries in the hope of developing into an adult in the fastest possible way. The borderline between right and wrong becomes blurry in the fast pace contest and initial good intentions prove to be poor decisions made from an untenable standpoint. An example of this sort of bad decision-making appears in Anna Davis’ short story ‘Hiding in Cheesy’s Bedroom’, where 16-year-old Jane struggles with growing up in a very rebellious way.
In Anna Davis’ short story we meet a 16-year-old girl called Jane. We know she is 16 years old because she mentions that she has to revise her GCSE, which is normally taken at the age of 16. Jane lives alone with her mother. The reader is not given any information about what has happened with Jane’s father, except the fact that he is no longer with her and her mother.
Jane’s mother tries to set up rules for Jane to follow, but she is incapable of enforcing the rules because of her lack of energy. When Jane’s mother says that Jane has to be home by midnight, Jane can stay out until the milkman comes by, because “Fortunately, she’s Jane’s mother is so tired and overworked that she is incapable of waiting up for me” (p. 9, ll. 29-30). Jane constantly pushes her mother’s ineffective boundaries and the reader sees her as being very rebellious. She is 16 years old and goes out almost every night, and she is with people who smoke marihuana. She does not offend her mother’s rules openly – she makes sure that she is in her bed when her mother wakes up in the morning and is very careful not to wake her when she comes home late at night. This particular day Jane’s limit-seeking behavior peaks when she openly breaks her mother’s rule about her curfew. She does not return home from her night out but instead she sleeps with her best friend’s boyfriend, Tommy. She does this to ‘catch up’ with her friend and to show her
Adolescents are constantly seeking boundaries in the hope of developing into an adult in the fastest possible way. The borderline between right and wrong becomes blurry in the fast pace contest and initial good intentions prove to be poor decisions made from an untenable standpoint. An example of this sort of bad decision-making appears in Anna Davis’ short story ‘Hiding in Cheesy’s Bedroom’, where 16-year-old Jane struggles with growing up in a very rebellious way.
In Anna Davis’ short story we meet a 16-year-old girl called Jane. We know she is 16 years old because she mentions that she has to revise her GCSE, which is normally taken at the age of 16. Jane lives alone with her mother. The reader is not given any information about what has happened with Jane’s father, except the fact that he is no longer with her and her mother.
Jane’s mother tries to set up rules for Jane to follow, but she is incapable of enforcing the rules because of her lack of energy. When Jane’s mother says that Jane has to be home by midnight, Jane can stay out until the milkman comes by, because “Fortunately, she’s Jane’s mother is so tired and overworked that she is incapable of waiting up for me” (p. 9, ll. 29-30). Jane constantly pushes her mother’s ineffective boundaries and the reader sees her as being very rebellious. She is 16 years old and goes out almost every night, and she is with people who smoke marihuana. She does not offend her mother’s rules openly – she makes sure that she is in her bed when her mother wakes up in the morning and is very careful not to wake her when she comes home late at night. This particular day Jane’s limit-seeking behavior peaks when she openly breaks her mother’s rule about her curfew. She does not return home from her night out but instead she sleeps with her best friend’s boyfriend, Tommy. She does this to ‘catch up’ with her friend and to show her