actly laugh at you…but there is just something…Oh, how peaceful it is here. She likes this room. It smells of art serge and stale smoke and chrysanthemums…" (55). When Mr. Bullen approaches Matilda, she begins to realize sexual attraction and is mortified by her sudden change, "Mr. Bullen comes back and walks up and down, very softly, waiting for her. What an extraordinary thing. Her fingers tremble so that she can't undo the knot in the music satchel. It's the wind…And her heart beats so hard she feels it must lift her blouse up and down." (55). She is confused at her attraction and becomes quite upset when he calls her "dear child". She begins to cry, perhaps because she does not want him to think of her as a child, or suddenly realizes that, for all her awakening, in the eyes of outsiders, she is still just a child. Both of these works comment on a strange period of life, one in which confusion, chaos, and disorder rule supreme. These works are strikingly similar and describe protagonists who, in order to reassess their own lives, redefine themselves through various ways. Two of the most obvious ways are rebellion against perceived negativity and attraction to men of control and power aid in this process. In both stories, the men to whom the protagonists were attracted to were commanding figures, confident in their power and place in society. The girls seemed to draw upon this power and use it for themselves, in their quest for definition. Aside from fundamental differences in structure, i. e. of a novella and short story, both works dealt with the compelling subject of "awakening sexuality" in a very illuminating way. ...
