'Ranch Girl' Arguing from Experience
Essay I: Arguing from Experience; Hopeless Romance
“I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love,” John Lennon. This is one of the many but powerful quotes given to us by the late John Lennon. Lennon, who was a strong advocator for love and peace during the war torn 1960’s, and inspired a whole generation with his songs. The ultimate question in finding love is deciding when you believe it is worth making a stand for it. More often than not people are unrealistic in projecting their future, especially when it involves a significant other. “Ranch Girl”, a short story written by Maile Meloy, tells the story of a young girl’s dilemma of deciding on when to give up on hopeless love. This somber and sad tale depicts many young adults repeated struggle with deciding their future with a significant other on their minds.
Meloy’s story follows an unnamed girl living on the Haskell’s cattle ranch as the foreman’s daughter in Montana during her high school years. When she turns sixteen and starts going out at night to “The Hill” with the rancher’s daughter Carla, she meets Andy Tyler. Andy never losses a fight at the hill and is seen by his peers as the popular guy in town. Andy asks to fuck her but she refuses; "virginity is as important to rodeo boys as it is to Catholics, and she doesn't go home to and fuck Andy Tyler because, when she finally gets him, she wants to keep him." Science teachers at the high school begin to tell her that “Eastern schools have Montana quotas for ranch girls good at math.” They say she could get scholarships. The teachers’ statements fall on deaf ears, because the girl has her path set in stone for a rodeo boy. So she comes up with a plan to load up on D’s so she can attend Western Montana College, where Andy Tyler wants to go. She deliberately begins to flunk in order to stay close to Andy. Two years of Andy asking her to go home with him have made him urgent about it. She dances with him at the all-night graduation party
“I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love,” John Lennon. This is one of the many but powerful quotes given to us by the late John Lennon. Lennon, who was a strong advocator for love and peace during the war torn 1960’s, and inspired a whole generation with his songs. The ultimate question in finding love is deciding when you believe it is worth making a stand for it. More often than not people are unrealistic in projecting their future, especially when it involves a significant other. “Ranch Girl”, a short story written by Maile Meloy, tells the story of a young girl’s dilemma of deciding on when to give up on hopeless love. This somber and sad tale depicts many young adults repeated struggle with deciding their future with a significant other on their minds.
Meloy’s story follows an unnamed girl living on the Haskell’s cattle ranch as the foreman’s daughter in Montana during her high school years. When she turns sixteen and starts going out at night to “The Hill” with the rancher’s daughter Carla, she meets Andy Tyler. Andy never losses a fight at the hill and is seen by his peers as the popular guy in town. Andy asks to fuck her but she refuses; "virginity is as important to rodeo boys as it is to Catholics, and she doesn't go home to and fuck Andy Tyler because, when she finally gets him, she wants to keep him." Science teachers at the high school begin to tell her that “Eastern schools have Montana quotas for ranch girls good at math.” They say she could get scholarships. The teachers’ statements fall on deaf ears, because the girl has her path set in stone for a rodeo boy. So she comes up with a plan to load up on D’s so she can attend Western Montana College, where Andy Tyler wants to go. She deliberately begins to flunk in order to stay close to Andy. Two years of Andy asking her to go home with him have made him urgent about it. She dances with him at the all-night graduation party