er women is something that desperately needs to change. The identity of the girl is associated heavily with men because the author wants women to be independent. The girl in the story therefore continues to value and be proud of all the work that she does for her father, but also continues to defy her mother and the fact that she is a girl. Her dreams are filled with stories of grand adventures where she plays the heroic rescuer and takes everyone to safety. However, as she grows and begins to notice the difference between boys and girls, her dreams become less involved with being the rescuer as being the one rescued. Perhaps this is because the feminine instinct inside of her is beginning to develop, or maybe just because she in giving in to the inevitable. Whatever the reason, the gender issues that the girl experiences are closely entwined with the identity uncertainties that she has about herself.The girl in this story is faced with the harsh reality of who she really is, and more importantly, who she is expected to become. In her struggle to identify with her father, she is faced with the extraordinary task of accepting who she is, and not who she wants to be. In spite of the fact that she thinks, behaves, and dreams things like a boy would, nearly everyone in her life is forcing her to see that she is a girl, and that is the life that she inevitably will have to live. Although she understands that she is a girl, it is the concept of being dominated by men that she does not like and will not accept. The word girl had formerly seemed to me innocent and unburdened, like the word child; now it appeared that it was no such thing. It was a definition, always touched with emphasis, with reproach and disappointment. (273)The role of women is such a negative thing in her mind that the difficulty in accepting the fact that she is a girl comes not in giving up her role as her fathers boyish right-hand man, but in having to act in a certain...
