6. Sittenfeld: "Prep"

Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep starts a month into Lee's first year at Ault, a boarding school in Massachusetts. Lee is a poor girl from Indiana on scholarship surrounded by rich kids; talking to Cross, she says "So you always knew you would go to boarding school?" to which he replies, "Pretty much" (53). Lee struggles to fit in and find friends. In the beginning, she also has a little struggle with her sexuality, over her obsession with Gates.

Lee says, "All of this was still in the beginning of the year, the beginning of my time at Ault, when I was exhausted all the time by both my vigilance and my wish to be inconspicuous. At soccer practice, I worried that I would miss the ball, when we boarded the bus for games at other schools, I worried that I would take a seat by someone who didn't want to sit next to me, in class I worried I would say a wrong or foolish thing. I worried that I took too much food at meals, or that I did not disdain the food you were supposed to disdain-Tater Tots, key lime pie-and at night, I worried that Dede or Sin-Jun would hear me snore. I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely" (15). I feel bad for her because she is so far from home, and it sucks to be in that situation even if you are at a public school close to home.

I don't understand why Lee's parents aren't more supportive of her, or if she's so lonely why she doesn't call home more often.

This relates to Hine's The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager; in the chapter "The Teenage Mystique", Hine talked about how after WWII there "was the assumption that all young people, regardless of their class, location, or ethnicity, should have essentially the same experience, spent with people exactly their age, in an environment defined by high school and pop culture" (Hine 11). Prep shows that this is not true. These students go to the same school but do not have the same experiences. The students at Ault are separated by rich and poor. Dede does not have the same experience as Gates and Lee certainly doesn't. Even Sin-Jun and Lee have different experiences, even though they both have few friends.

I think after spending the holiday with Cross and his friends, Lee sees that boys are easier to get along with and are not judgmental like all the girls in her dorm. They hung out with her and were able to joke around and not care that she was not all done up and rich. I was also a little disappointed when Lee's interest in Gates faded and then after the day trip she started to like Cross (and he possibly liked her too). It was interesting, but I would've liked it better if it had a lesbian romance or even had Lee turn out to be gay.