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The Symbolism Of Hair In John Updike's Alligators

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It is evident that life changes people and who they are. The actions that they take and the decisions that they make depict exactly how their life will play out. In Alligators, the author, John Updike, uses hair as a symbol to introduce the idea of character development to the reader. Throughout the story, Joan is said to be hated in class and described with long, curly hair. At the end, she ends up shaving and cutting most of it off, all the while the reader discovers Joan is not hated yet loved by her classmates. The author uses her to hair to show how the attitude towards her from the other children's perspective changes, and so does Joan herself. In the beginning, John Updike shows that when Joan had long hair, the kids picked on her and treated her poorly. On page 2 it states “Boys were always yanking open the bow at the back of …show more content…

On the last page the text states “Now that he kept his eyes always on her, he noticed, that in passing in the afternoon from Miss Brobst’s to Miss Fritz's room, Joan was not alone, but chartered with others.” This shows how after becoming intrigued with Joan, due to her hair, Charlie realized that she was not despised at all. The author uses Joan’s hair as a way to bring the plot together and connect the story. On page 6 it states “At the next hair cut he could have his hair parted on the other side to get away from his cowlick. He would change himself totally...” This is evident because it shows how Charlie wants to change himself, his hair, to fit in with Joan. Not only does the author use this dialogue as a way to incorporate symbolism into the text but they also use it as foreshadowing; showing that Charlie wanted to change his hair just like Joan to fit in with the popular crowd. Thus showing she was popular the entire time and Charlie was unaware until

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