Characterization of Chrissy

Here, we characterize the main character, Chrissy, from the short story “Good Girl” by Marita Conlon-McKenna.

Outer characterization

Chrissy attends a Catholic school in Northern Ireland. She has been working as a babysitter and spent a large amount of the money she has earned on her new jeans, which fit her well and which she is very proud of (p. 69, ll. 15-18). She has long auburn hair which falls “thick and glossy down her back” (p. 68, l. 7), and which by the end of the story gets cut unevenly to “spiky tufts of hair that covered her skull” (p. 73, l. 39). She has two siblings: her older sister Anna and her younger sister Gemma. She lives together with her two sisters and her parents. Her boyfriend, Ian, attends a Protestant grammar school and the two of them met during a school debate four months ago. 

Inner characterization

Chrissy refuses to follow social norms and goes against the grain in her community, as suggested by her attitude towards her older sister Anna, who is “boring” (p. 69, l. 32), because she spends her tim...