Literature for Analytical Part of Gays and Lesbians

The story that was read was called, “Running”, by Ellen Howard. In this story there were many characters but the characters that the story specifically focused on was a lesbian girl named Sheila that was not accepted by her parents and a girl named Terry that is a bit different from others The context of the story is it is about a girl named Terry. Terry is a teenager and she has a best friend named Maggie. Also, she has a sister named Heather. Heather is in college and her parents let to go to Europe. When Heather comes back, she asks her parents if she could bring a friend back with her because her friend is having problems at her house and she got kicked out of her house because of her parents. When the family is at the air port they realize that Heathers friend is a lesbian but, they still accept her into their home. Sheila, Heathers friend, is really sweet and her parents kicked her out of the house because they found of she was a lesbian. This brings up many points to what has been researched and how Lesbians and Gays don’t feel accepted into their community because what they are doing is “wrong”. Continuing on with the context of this short story, Terry is first afraid to get to know Sheila because Terry thinks Sheila is beautiful. Terry finally starts to get to know Sheila and she really starts to like her because she is different and understands her. In the story, Terry gets upset about her best friend not coming to camp with her because she chose her boyfriend and Sheila was there to comfort her. Sheila shows Terry that it’s okay to be upset and that it’s okay to be different. For example, the last lines of this short story were, “And then she shipped through the door, leaving me outside. But the door was open. If I had the courage, I could follow"(101). This quote shows that everyone is different and to really fully understand yourself, a person has to be brave and accept who they really are. In this example, Sheila walked into Terry’s house and Sheila recognized that Terry was also lesbian and if she wanted to, she could follow and accept herself for who she really is. A problem in today’s world is that people that are Gay and Lesbian are afraid to admit it to them because of the way society rejects it. Society in this story rejected it in the way that Sheila’s parents kicked her out of her own house. So sometimes, its hard for people who are lesbian and gay to admit it, because of the negativity the society gives on the topic. The last sentence of this short story was saying that a person should always stick to being himself even if it’s a little different than other people. The perspective that this short story was written in a person that was confused about their sexuality and in the story it showed that it was okay and even sometimes better for someone to be different. This written expression adds to the definition of the theme in the way that its different than most but that in the end, it’s okay to be different. Also, the context of this short story showed that Gay and Lesbians are people with feelings and emotions and that they are not totally different than the "normal" person and that they just are attracted to the same sex. This short story connects to the real world in the way that people still feel this way and sometimes are afraid to be true to themselves. In this society, being Gay and Lesbian is considered as to being strange and weird. So, if a person is Lesbian or Gay which is something they cannot help, they will hide it and feel a sort of emptiness all their life. If this society accepted Gays and Lesbians, people wouldn’t be missing that part of their identity.