When I say that we are all teen girls,
what I mean is that when Reverend Parris said, "there is a party in this church. … there is a faction and a party", all I heard was
why don’t they like me?
Why won’t they be my friend?
And how can I talk about Reverend Parris without also
mentioning that if everyone is a teen girl then so are the Puritans,
their strict social rules,
their whispered but never spoken rumors,
And Rebecca, of course Rebecca,
her outspoken wisdom
easily dismissed,
the way she is begged and ordered to heal people who aren’t broken,
and still she is there to help each time her name is called.
What is more teen girl than not being loved but wanting it
so badly you condemn a man’s wife to be hanged for witchcraft?
What is more teen girl than the court’s refusal to listen,
taking in only the convenient evidence so you can believe whatever you want to?
What is more teen girl than lying to get attention?
Than the whine of being possessed in court?
What is more teen girl than Goody Osburn,
who was condemned for having dirty faces and no money,
who was singled out by the mean popular girls,
who did not go to church and cannot recite the commandments but
sometimes when Mary Warren turns her away she mumbles,
sometimes it sounds like a curse,
sometimes she is scolded for begging and for loitering
around the church,
sometimes people give her some bread and think she feels
grateful, they think she likes to feel grateful, they think Goody Osburn is a teen
girl.
And McCarthyism, oh McCarthyism, what a teen girl it is with
its resolute yet uncertain decisions,
And the allegations, random and unproven and dictating all
of our lives.
Hathorne’s cries of contempt are teen girls,
how they hold so little power and such great influence all
at once, how sometimes Danforth tries to silence them but they always return
when new evidence is presented.
Imagine the teen girls gone form our world and how quickly
we’d beg for their return how grateful we would be then for their loud
shrieking to warn us of a spirit that’s working with the devil.
Even the people who sit quietly in the court while women are
put on trial,
even they are teen girls the way they watch hungrily as
drama unfolds and still are relieved to not participate.
John Proctor, teen girl and his inconvenient lust,
Mary Warren, teen girl and her fear of rejection from the
mean girls,
And Abigail Williams, a teen girl who insists that spirits
are trying to possess her but still can display generosity and strength.
I tell her we are all just teen girls and she recounts the
time John Proctor called her a child even after they’d had an affair, the time
she was dismissed by Elizabeth Proctor and hasn’t found work since, the time
she was caught dancing in the woods trying to conjure spirits and in a moment was
spinning tales of how she bravely fought off the devil.
And of course, there are the teen girls,
The real teen girls huddled in the court room, limbs draped
over each other’s shoulders, voices screaming a cacophony of allegations,
And all of the bystanders who watch with delight as these
girls accuse and condemn,
Not knowing where they learned to do this,
to harshly judge and deem someone a sinner,
Not knowing where they learned this palpable rage
Not knowing the teen girls who are our most cunning liars,
who teach us how to steal power using deceit and manipulation because that’s
the only way they’re awarded any,
The teen girls who teach us to scream.
Olivia Gatwood's When I Say That We Are All Teen Girls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHaCKwYCFZs
In this parody, I tried to mimic Gatwood's use of humor and metaphors to compare various aspects of life to the clichés associated with teen girls. However, I instead aimed to relate the characters and aspects of The Crucible in a way that highlighted the immaturity and chaos that is present in the first two acts of the play. Relating the characters to teen girls not only symbolizes how much power the group of girls have over the entire Salem community, it mocks the seriousness with which people are treating the witch hunt by drawing attention to the logistical flaws of the system. All in all, the classic image of the irrational teenage girl fits quite well with the events of the first two acts.
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