Calling Home

                                   Calling Home


 The young girl caught shoplifting in the essay  Calling Home by Jean Brandt, was treated too harshly by the store detective. A girl of thirteen should not be put in jail for the crime of stealing a 75 cent Snoopy button. This draconian measure could leave the girl with traumatic stress and severe emotional problems for years to come. Other less punitive measures could have been implemented to teach the girl a lesson.


Stealing, is not something that should be overlooked. But certainly snatching a 75 cent button doesn't warrant jail time. Here, an impulsive girl made a snap judgement that put in her in a bad place. She didn't want to wait in line, so she dropped the offending button in her pocket. She even felt good about the act when she thought she got away with it:  "I thought  about how sly I had been and I felt proud of my accomplishment." ( Brandt 15) A bad attitude no doubt, and certainly something needed to be done to correct her.


The store overreacted by sending her to jail. The girl was placed in jail at the tender age of thirteen--a place for hardened criminals. The detectives could have simply informed her parents and she would learn her lesson. Here is Jean's reaction when she tells her mother that she is in jail: " I felt like a terrible human being.." (17) Obviously her parents disapproval would be sufficient without her being imprisoned.


In conclusion Jean Brandt was treated too harshly by the store for the crime of shoplifting.

Thelma and Louise

In the screenplay for the movie Thelma and Louise by Callie Khouri, these two women outlaws on the run from the law are unique in American cinema. Instead of playing the domestic drudge, with a husband and two nagging kids, they are gals who are armed and dangerous.



Females in American literature for the most part stay in their society sanctioned roles.





Unlike the traditional female characters we have encountered in our reading, these two ladies act like two
male sociopaths--a true threat to society.



In conclusion Thelma and Louise are two unique characters in cinema history. They defy the role of the stereotypical domesticated woman, and become outlaws, a role usually reserved for a male.