Literary Analysis Essay on Born This Way

Introduction

It is extensively argued that when you take part in activities that go against your sexual identity its either you are lying to yourself about your sexuality or you are simply experimenting. Being a lesbian is something you are born with, hence making it difficult to change.

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Born this Way is a short narrative about two teenagers who end up sharing their deep secrets after trying to run away from who they truly are. As a consequence, their bond grows stronger and brave enough to face their fears.

A twenty-year-old Anne Hayden hails from a very staunch religious background. Due to her strict upbringing, she have managed to keep a lot of secrets to herself for the fear of not tarnishing the name of her family. At an early age, she began being attracted to other young girls despite many boys complimenting her how beautiful she was. She got attracted to her classmate Meghan but deep inside she was not ready to face the shame that would transpire if people came to learn about it.

As a result, she started looking at herself harshly, negatively, and unfavorably which ended up causing a lot of anxieties in her life. The more she thought about her feelings to other girls the more shameful she felt about herself. When Anne and Meghan became adults, Meghan started dating a boy while Anne was left struggling with her feelings. Things got worse when people started asking her if she is seeing someone. This stirred a lot of pain deep inside her that she was unable to face.

When things were unbearable, Anne moved to Australia on her own to try and start all over again. She was trying to get away from her secrets and sadness that she experienced while growing up. What she did not realize is that her love for other girls could not just vanish away just like that and she needed to talk about the shame she was locking deep inside her.

One day she went to hang out with her neighbor, who was so friendly to her from the moment she arrived in Miami. His name was Mark and they were almost the same age. This was strange to Anne because she was used to running away from her peers especially girls for the fear that she might end up opening up about her feelings.

Coincidently, Mark and Anne shared almost the same story, they both opened up about their feelings towards their same sex affection and this helped to calm down the thoughts in their minds. They both decided to follow their hearts and accepted that being lesbians or gay is just part of being who they are and there was no need of feeling ashamed. However, being honest with each other was just a tip of the iceberg, what mattered the most is the life after opening up about their experiences of hiding their true sexual identity.

Character Sketches of Born this Way

The main character's name in the short narrative, Born this Way, is Anne Hayden.

Appearance Details

Looking at Anne Hayden, she appears to be delicate, innocent, feminine, and scarily intelligent. She is a beautiful young girl who does not talk much hence the reason why she looked shy almost all the time. Her hair was ruby-red and it tumbled down her shoulders which made her appearance even more attractive.

Her character was ladylike, maybe because of her shyness when in front of many people that she is not close with. Anne is a girl who can mysteriously make a person feel nice just being around her, yet she carried a lot of secrets and sadness within her. She is the kind of person who is hard to know or learn her true character.

Life Details

The Protagonist, Anne Hayden was brought up in Chicago by very strict parents who were staunch catholic believers; however, she later moved to Miami when she was an adult to start her own life. She loved reading novels and architect books as well as secretly dancing all by herself. She was a young architect student which meant that she had to navigate through the office cultures since she was in a white-collar job.

However, Anne dressed casually, she did not match up the societal expectations of an architect although she was very passionate about her career. Architecture is a very time-consuming job and she took it as an advantage so that she could hide her sadness and deep secrets while reading art books as well as to avoid any questions about her sexual life.

Additional Character

The other character in the short story, Born this Way is Mark. Unlike Anne, Mark was a jovial and fun person as well as a caring young man; probably one of the reasons they connected easily with Anne. Just like Anne, Mark also had his secrets despite the jovial personality.

Scene

The main location of the short story, Born this Way is in Miami. Sitting down in the magical city of Miami, Anne sips some cold Cocktails with the hope that it will help her in forgetting her past and the feelings she had kept deep inside her.

Despite there being several people in the bar participating in all kinds of fun activities such as sunbathing and outside gym classes, her mind was traveling back in time bringing in the love she had for her classmate and best friend. Little by little, the feelings and secrets she was trying running away from were now repeatedly played in her mind. Subsequently, during this moment her neighbor Mark walked in and found her lost in her memories. It was easy for Mark to figure out what was going through her mind since he had also been down this road before.

Melodious tunes were playing all around the place with several people dancing while others were tasting the Cuban dishes, coffee, cocktails. Mark walked in straight to where Anne was sitting with a glass of whiskey on his right hand. Anne seemed not so surprised since she was expecting Mark to show up in their usual hanging out location.

Deep down she has always wanted to air out her deepest secret to Mark who was very welcoming and fun to hang out with. As if Mark knew all about her feelings, he started opening up about his sexual life which, made it so easy for Anne to allow Mark in her world. Finally, she got a chance to open up about her feelings towards other girls and how much she struggled to fight those feelings and she was not able to do it.

Mark made her feel comfortable and told her that is was a good thing to be a lesbian. She started feeling proud of herself and she was ready to face the ghost of shame and live her life happily by following her heart. They both had a memorable night out although none had an idea of what was to happen the next day and the days after. Were they going back to hide their feelings and continue feeling ashamed or they would embrace their sexuality with love and respect just like any other normal relationships?