Jenny Mao

Mr. Seeley’s Saturday class

Mark Seeley
2019.4.11
The Merge of the Divide

Charming and concreted, Anna Quindlen’s vivid narrate “Between the Sexes, a great

Divide” reveals conflict between the two genders and bridging so. With simile of boys and girls, the

antithesis of the different genders and the final bridging, Quindlen’s descriptions of the

misunderstanding between male and female suggest the conflict in order to make an appeal on

bridging the gap between sexes.

The simile of boys and girls, beginning with the school dance party, largely contribute to

setting up the difference between boys and girls. She defines boys as destruction because of their

symbol “loafers” but girls as birds for their giggles. It indicates that the male has develop a concept

of violence yet the females with love and care like the mother nature does. Clearly enough, the

author tries to cultivate an image of masculine as evil while feminism as angle gradually and

silently in order to gain sympathy from readers and to introduce the following antitheses.

The antitheses of male and female thoughts reveals the distinction between the two genders.

Men also boys can hold the same opinion as “Mom. Weird. Women.” with a “flash” while women

can agree on “Husband. Strange. Men.” Both men and women hold the same idea that the others are

incomprehensible but hardly think for the other when self comes in a predominant position. The

author emphasize the children’s reaction in order to draw reader’s attention on the impact of

masculinity or femininity on juveniles since most of such daily and deeply rooted notions are

mainly shaped in childhood.

In the end, the author tries to bridge the two genders together by defining herself as a

woman who as well has masculinity since she “have never learned to follow”. Echoing the front of

the passage with the “gym” as the ballroom, only the “dance” matters instead of “difference”
indicates the willingness to see men and women can switch their roles to understand each other. In

addition, the children's behavior reflects the possibility of mending the gap.

All in all, Anna Quidlen’s narrate on the conflict between two genders had a great effect on

revealing the conflict and similarity between masculinity and feminism.