02/07/2007
The Entwickelungsroman and Adolescent Literature Adolescent Literature and Constructing the Self Agency and Gender Living Outside of Mainstream Culture Gidget's Adult Development
The Entwickelungsroman and Adolescent Literature: Like many works of young adult fiction, Gidget is an Entwicklungsroman, or coming of age novel, which is different from the Bildungsroman in that it doesn't cover as much time in the protagonist's journey from childhood to adulthood, but instead usually focuses on one important incident that was instrumental in shaping him or her. Gidget is similar to Catcher in the Rye, The Chocolate War, Annie on My Mind, and The Outsiders in this regard. And Gidget is similar to Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye, Ponyboy Curtis in The Outsiders, or Eliza Winthrop in Annie on My Mind in that she must share her story with someone. Gidget is particularly similar to Holden Caulfield in that she is speaking directly to the audience, although I wouldn't go as far to characterize this novel as a female "Catcher in the Rye" as does Deanne Stillman in her introduction to Gidget.
Adolescent Literature and Constructing the Self: Gidget begins by telling us how she will relate her story, in defiance of the rules set down by her English teacher, who is "full of bilge water" (2). Here she is demonstrating another common theme in adolescent literature, and in the school story, that formal education is usually not the site where the most important learning takes place. She also becomes impatient with the conventions of writing itself, longing for the immediacy of speech. She says of writing that it is easy to lose your train of thought: "You mention something about old Malibu and some waves and you ooze out all over the place and forget what you wanted to say" (5). She claims that her purpose in relating her story to us is so that she won't forget this experience when she is old. After all, she has noted that adults all too often tend to forget how it was to be young, and the result is that they are now old with nothing to show for it (6).
Gidget's story exemplifies for her an important transition from innocence to experience, from girlhood to womanhood. Throughout the novel, she is anxious about her own physical development. She resists some of her parents attempts to physically mold her into what they see as a suitable young woman, such as putting braces on her, which she sees as an attempt to tamper with her personality (10). Still, she is anxious about that one part of the body that generally defines womanhood--the breast: "The only thing that worries me is my bosom. It's there alright, and it sure looks good when I'm undressed, but I have a hard time making it count in a sweater or such" (10).
Like most adolescents, Gidget is attempting to create an identity that in some ways falls within the acceptable limits of her culture and in others defies these limits. Surfing gives Gidget an independence she cannot have if she embodies her culture's idea of acceptable femininity. From the first time she sees surf boards and what people are doing with them, she thinks "boy, to be able to ride this--all by yourself!" (17), which is a vast improvement on the fins she uses to calmly swim and dive in the ocean. From that moment on, "the most desperate thing [she] wanted . . . was a surfboard of [her] own" (19). Ironically, Gidget's ability to eventually hang with the surfers is due to her mother's attempts to physically mold her into what she sees as an acceptable young woman. Her mother, alarmed at her daughter's short stature, got the idea that stretching her body would cause her to grow more, and so she made Gidget swim as much as possible (9). And what is attractive for Gidget is the agency she gains through merely using her body. This sort of very physical agency is nearly always the exclusive province of males until very recently, when things such as Title IX have done much to actively encourage girls to be athletic. Gidget's friend Larue similarly uses her body in athletic activities riding horses, but her equestrianism is seen as acceptably feminine. Gidget gently derides her friend for having a defunct love life, which is perhaps due to her love of horses, a love that Gidget's brother-in-law Larry views as sexual sublimating (24).
Agency and Gender: Gidget's ability to articulate her story exemplifies to what degree she is acquiring the agency to control her own life. This agency is a characteristic of successful adult development. We typically see the divide between childhood and adulthood as marked by an ability (or lack thereof) to control most of the events of one's life. However, adult female development is different from adult male development in that women generally have less agency than do men in our culture. This was particularly true in the 1950s, when the "experts" told women that there was something psychological wrong with them if they wanted anything more out of life than marrying and raising children, which necessitated that they give up a good deal of agency in their lives. Women who wanted to pursue an education, have a career, or who were not heterosexual were seen as worse than just different--they were unnatural deviants to be pitied, and perhaps treated for mental disorders.
Gidget has more agency than most girls her age during this time period, thanks in part to her race and class privileges and indulgent parents. Yet we also see attempts to form her mind in a way that would curb this agency. Various child development professionals attempt to shape Gidget's mind. Her English teacher attempts to guide the way she thinks by teaching her one way to write, while her brother-in-law Larry, a child psychiatrist, tries to get inside of her head in order to better manipulate her. It is against this backdrop that she rebels by surfing. Her surfing is not acceptable to her parents because it's physically dangerous and it was at the time an overwhelmingly male sport, and practicing required that she spend a great deal of time with men who are older than herself and who are knowledgeable in things that Gidget's parents wish their daughter to not know lest it prevent her from embodying the middle class femininity she is expected to model.
The result is that when Gidget tells us her story, she frequently second guesses herself with self-deprecating phrases such as "I know little about the technique employed by professional writers" (47). While Gidget is defying her culture, she cannot defy it completely because she constantly senses the difference between her own ability to relate her story and use language and what is held up to her as the standard and appropriate model of doing these things. She may say that her English teacher Mr. Glicksburg is full of bilge water, but she does keep quoting him, if only to call attention to her failure to follow all of his rules. And of course, there is yet another layer to Gidget's story. Her father, the author, is actually telling it for her, thus in a sense forming his very real daughter's identity in a very public way.
When Gidget asks the go-heads to teach her how to surf, Cass attempts to discourage her by saying that "there are also some other things that you might learn here" which might be undesirable since she's a "nice kid" (32) and by revealing to her their basic sexism: "We don't like dames around here. . . . They're always stirring up trouble. Surfing is serious business. Not for dames." (33).
Once Gidget is permitted to hang out with the go-heads on the beach, she thinks that she's not sure what makes her more excited, the prospect of surfing or that the guys "made [her] a member of the crew" (37). And she sees her relationship with the surfers as superior to any relationship she's had with boys her own age. She "felt right at home with the crew. They were regular guys--none of those fumbling high school jerks who tackle a girl like a football dummy. No sweaty hands and struggles on slippery leather seats of hot rods. The bums of Malibu knew how to talk to a girl, how to handle her, how to make her feel grown up" (37-38). What Gidget seems to be longing for is sexual equality where she is valued for her abilities rather than her value as an object. Yet she also appreciates how the crew makes her feel grown up, which according to Gidget they accomplish through both knowing how to talk to her and being able to handle her as if she were a different type of being entirely from them. And when Gidget develops more physically, she too will become a dame and will therefore be disqualified from hanging out with the guys.
Gidget's body gives her a liminal status among the go-heads. While she is obviously female and younger, she is sufficiently small and underdeveloped that they don't view her as a sexual object, but rather, as a little sister that they must protect and mentor. Her non-threatening appearance is further demonstrated by the nickname the go-heads bestow on her, Gidget, a contraction of girl and midget. And she also behaves in other ways they consider desirably feminine such as often demurring to their supposedly greater wisdom or by keeping them supplied with food. These men otherwise have no problem objectifying women. They are all too happy to interrupt their surfing to peruse the latest issue of Playboy or to make comments about the bodies of other women.
To Gidget, most of the go-heads aren't sexualized. When she meets the Big Kahoona, she says that "he wasn't exactly the kind of guy that would drive a girl mad with desire" (26). The only person that Gidget has any romantic feelings for is Moondoggie, who first shows his feelings for her by taking her away from the crew when their talk becomes overly sexual, and one of them bluntly asks her if she's a good girl or a nice girl. This comment indicates that while she is seen as a little sister for now, that status can change if she has a relationship with any of the crew that is defined by anything other than surfing.
Gidget's feelings for Moondoggie blossom after she goes out tandem surfing with him for the first time. Their surfing together is a sublimated sexual activity, particularly when she rides on Moondoggie's shoulders. In a fashion reminiscent of the typical romance novel, the day ends with the two losing track of time, and Gidget being scolded by her parents as a result of her tardiness. That evening, she develops a fever, and an illness that keeps her away from the crew for a few weeks. This event is also similar to the plot of a romance where the heroine must be separated from the beloved for a while after their first meeting in order to intensify their longing for one another. While she's in bed delirious with fever, she dreams of Moondoggie and calls his name, alarming her parents. She also reads "the dirty parts" of contemporary romance novels and writes Moondoggie a love letter which she tears up.
Gidget also sees her relationship with the crew her own private space away from the prying eyes of adults where she can develop. Her friend Larue convinces Gidget to not tell her mother about how she's spending her time during the summer because if she does, first her mother will come to the beach to check on her which will ultimately lead to her trying surfing for herself and deciding to spend her time at the beach too (38) Gidget soon understands the wisdom of keeping this experience all to herself, even not letting her other friends in on it. While some of Gidget's other girlfriends might give her a lift to the beach, she never lets them near the cove (39). Keeping her other female friends away from the cove and the crew both preserves this area as her own space where she can be free of the judgment of a set of peers while she engages in what is viewed as a masculine pursuit, and also reinforces her ability to view herself as suitably feminine as it permits her to get rid of any potential competition for the crew's attention.
Living Outside of Mainstream Culture: One of the most amazing things to Gidget about the crew, particularly the Big Kahoona, is how they live outside of mainstream culture. One day, as she is bringing them food from her parents' amply stocked middle class refrigerator, she wonders how people such as the Big Kahoona keep themselves supplied since he doesn't work a job. Not only that, but he has been able to travel the world, surfing various beaches. Gidget comments that "you can't travel around the world on a surfboard" because it's necessary to have money to do these things. (41). The Big Kahoona is able to both live off of the sea, living for free in a grass hut on the beach that is on public property and eating fish and shellfish from the ocean, and also getting money from the occasional girlfriend and sponsorship from the other guys who are better off than he is. Gidget asks the typical middle class question asked of people who live this way: "What's a guy like him going to do when he gets older?" since he has obviously not saved money for a rainy day the way her parents do. The answer is "the only way to get economic independence is to be independent of economics. The more money you make, the less independent you are of it. And once you make a lot of dough, you're more dependant than when you're broke" (40). His philosophy is that youth is for enjoying the pleasures of the flesh and just being alive. "The time to start making dough is when you get old and creaky" (40). And in typical young person fashion, neither the crew nor Gidget ever think this day will come, or believe that when it does, it is easy to simply break into the work force and make enough money to live. The person that Gidget becomes romantically involved with shares this philosophy. Moondoggie, aka Jeff Griffin, comes from oil money, but refuses to take any of his father's riches. Jeff claims that he doesn't take his father's money because he is disgusted by the way he treats his mother, but some of his refusal has to do with rebellion against his father. By rejecting his father's money and what it can offer, such as a place in a prestigious private school regardless of his bad high school grades, he is rejecting the life of wealth and privilege that his father has planned for him. Instead, Jeff earns his own money working in Alaska on a project, or taking up other working class trades in the off season (48). This gives him enough money to finance summers with the crew so he can adhere to their number one rule about never doing an honest day's work during surfing season (49)
The theme of living outside of mainstream culture, at least for a while, is common in adolescent literature. Stepping outside of one's social milieu is crucial to psychological growth. When one steps outside of the familiar, it is possible to view it through a different perspective, which prompts critical assessment of this milieu and it's traditions and institutions. Stepping outside of the milieu permits the subject to critically interrogate his or her own subjectivity, and to perhaps develop an adult sense of self with more agency.
The first half of the novel is about Gidget very consciously stepping outside of her own white middle class suburban milieu. She enters the world of the beach, a male dominated environment that is openly critical of bourgeois morality, although it certainly doesn't critique prevailing ideas about women. It's fine for the beach bums to decline to be respectable members of the working or middle classes engaged in productive labor and refusing for the most part to be stable, family men. But they still hold very traditional ideas about gender. Women are all either good girls or nice girls, and the women they date are coozies and sponsors of their leisure.
Gidget's Adult Development: And alas, for Gidget, entering this milieu doesn't permit her to develop any real critical awareness of her subjectivity. She may sneak out of the house to surf with the crew, pretend to be the Kahoona's mistress to scare off a girlfriend, and attend the beach party that Jeff wants her to stay away from, but she is still very much confined by her culture's ideas about appropriate femininity. When her parents learn that she has been sneaking off to hang with the beach bums, they ask their son-in-law Larry, the child psychologist, to interrogate Gidget to see to what degree she has transgressed what they see as the acceptable boundaries of femininity. Larry is so relieved to learn about Gidget's well-preserved virginity that he calls her father to tell him that his daughter's behavior is quite harmless, and part of a normal pattern of rebellion. "She wants to be free from control, and she wants to show her independence. All this dirty language and smoking cigarettes and putting on mascara are just the obvious signs of juvenile rebellion. The best way to get her over it is to give her all the freedom she wants with certain limitations" (77). And this is exactly what Gidget's parents do, and the results are exactly as Larry predicts.
Gidget's dating of Jeff disturbs her parents because he is four years older than she is and in college, but in the end, he is the one who ensures that her development continues along the trajectory of traditional femininity. Jeff is enraged about her attending the luau because he believes that she will be exposed to things that no good girl should see, such as the orgy that will allegedly occur. But what Gidget sees, she is unable to process, in part thanks to her parents' rearing of her. She has to look up the word "orgy" in her father's dictionary, and still doesn't understand with it means. And when she spends the night in bed with Cass, he too works to ensure that she continue to be a good girl. When they share the same bed, they lie together like "brother and sister" (141), and Cass tells her that she's "everything a man would ever want" because she's "sweet . . . young . . . and in love with life," so when she does finally lose her virginity, she should remember that "when it happens between you and a man it must be beautiful" (141). While Cass isn't explicitly telling Gidget to avoid premarital sex, he is encouraging her to preserve her virginity in favor of a partner with whom the experience will be transcendent. He contrasts what she should hold out for with his own sexual relationships. Gidget asks Cass if he's been hurting Buff, the woman she helped scare off earlier in the week, and he confesses that he's been hurting her and others (142). We never know quite how Cass is hurting Buff and the other nameless women, but we can assume it is through having sex with them when the experience is less than beautiful, whatever that is.
The denouement shows Gidget embracing a very traditional feminine identity. In the morning, when Jeff sees that Gidget has spent the night with Cass, the two get into a fist fight. Instead of questioning why Jeff even has a right to view her as his own property, particularly when he already has a girlfriend, she is buoyed by the violence. As she looks upon Jeff, bleeding from the nose and "stymied and bleary-eyed against the wall of the hut . . . instead of a feeling of compassion nothing but a pang of joy went through [her]. This was the pinnacle, this was the most. Surely nothing more wonderful would ever happen to [her]." (147). Two men fighting over her is a sign to Gidget that she is not the girl midget, but instead, a woman in that she can command male attention to this degree. Her joy, however, causes her to do something unfeminine: she grabs a board and goes out to surf, and for the first time, is able to stand and ride a wave. Still, this is short lived. The novel closes in an echo of the marriage plot found in works written for a female audience. A year has passed. Gidget and Jeff are going steady, she has his fraternity pin, and they write to one another while he's in boot camp. Her relationship with Jeff rather than her surfing prowess gives her a status and confidence she lacked in the beginning of the novel: she says of wearing Jeff's fraternity pin that "brother, do I make the most of it with those squares who think they're just it, because they have a few more inches upwards and sideways" (153-54). She ends by observing that "when it struck me this summer with Jeff could have been just a dream. With Cass curiosity. But with the board and the sun and the waves it was for real" and that maybe "she was just a woman in love with a surfboard." (154). However, it's hard to take this observation too seriously as the closing chapter devotes more energy to detailing her relationship with Jeff rather than the bitchen surf she is able to catch in Malibu.