Overview -Going Places

Overview -Going Places by A.R.Barton

Background:

This story explores Ireland in the 20th century, a time when gender roles were starting to change due to economic shifts from an agrarian society to an industrialized one. Women gained increased autonomy and political power during this time, gaining the right to vote.However, they quickly faced a sharp backlash of legislation limiting their freedoms, such as the "marriage bar" implemented, which prevented any married woman from employment in the public sector. Ireland also has an entrenched class hierarchy, making it nearly impossible for individuals of a working or middle-class background to achieve a better life for themselves or their families, which led to waves of emigration.

Introduction:

The story explores hero-worship and rich inner fantasy life from the perspective of a teenage girl. Sophia, a young girl uses her imagination and idealization of a football player to win the approval of her family esp. her brother. It explores a young woman using her imagination to escape the dreary home life and to cope with the difficulties of the working class. In the story, A.R.Barton depicts the importance of imagination and creating alternate worlds to escape the unhappiness and lack of success in the protagonist's life.

Themes:

• Fantasy And Reality Sophie, a lonely and ambitious girl from a troubled working-class family, fantasy is perhaps the only way not to be broken by her circumstances.Barton suggests that the fantasies, while being potentially harmful, also help Sophie to bear her life. Throughout the story, these moments of fantasy are when Sophie feels the happiest and be herself. Barton shows fantasy and imagination to be powerful tools, even if they cannot change reality.Family And Individuality By showing Sophie trapped in an unresolvable conflict between who she feels she is and who her family wants her to be, Barton shows the crushing weight of situations in which being loved and accepted by family is at odds with individual expression and fulfilment.Rather than validating Sophie's individuality, her family ridicules or passively ignores her. It's no wonder, then, that Sophie is uncomfortable in her home.Sophie's story is never really about Danny Casey—rather, she attempts to prove to her family that she as an individual has merit.Ultimately, Sophie is unable to create a world, even in her head, in which she receives praise and acceptance from her family.• Class And Ambition Each of the characters in "Going Places" reacts differently to being poor: Sophie's father seems to drink and be cruel, her mother seems resigned and depressed, and her little brother, Derek, is already old enough to roll his eyes at Sophie and tell her that money 1 / 2

doesn't grow on trees. Sophie, meanwhile, responds to her restrictive circumstances by imagining opening a boutique or becoming an actress.Through this, Barton illustrates the immense weight and reach of class hierarchy—which is so rigid and seemingly impassable that those of Sophie's class can't imagine, let alone hope for, a better life.Limitation Of Gender Role The men and women fit rigidly within gendered expectations. Sophie's father is the family's breadwinner, while her mother appears to be in charge of household duties. As for Sophie's generation, her brother Geoff (a mechanic who loves football) is associated with traditionally masculine objects and pursuits, while her friend Jansie (a known gossip who is destined for a life making biscuits) is more traditionally feminine. Sophie is unique in displaying both feminine and masculine characteristics, as she has interests in fashion and acting, but she is ambitious and independent.

Significance/ReIevance of the Title:

The title of "Going Places" can be read ironically, as its characters are not going anywhere.Instead, Barton illustrates that they are so trapped by their socio-economic circumstances that they cannot even imagine a better future. In a class system with so few opportunities for upward mobility, Sophie's relatively harmless penchant for, essentially, going places in her head to escape her bleak reality is received with utter disdain by those around her.Being confronted with the thought of something better, no matter how unlikely, is simply a reminder of their limitations.Symbols

• THE BOW

The bow represents the incongruity between the beauty expected of women and the grim reality of their actual lives. A bow is stereotypically feminine, and despite how non- threatening a bow is, in this cofitext it evokes the oppression that also sadly comes along with being a woman or a girl. In this time period especially, many women were unable to have lives outside of the home, so in some ways the bow might as well be a chain, trapping women to domestic servitude.

• THE BOUTIQUE

• The boutique symbolizes everything that Sophie wants for herself in the future:

wealth, beauty, independence, respect, and admiration from others. Notably, this is a dream that Sophie likely cannot achieve because she is working class.

• The reasons that nobody believes in Sophie's dream have to do with both class and

gender: it's unlikely that a working class girl who is expected to work in a factory could ever come up with enough money to own a boutique.

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