Relationship between Jane and Carrie

Your exam question also asks you to focus on the relationship between Jane and Carrie as presented in “I Dare You” by Eileen Merriman.

Jane and Carrie are teenage friends, most likely best friends, as they have matching friendship bracelets (ll. 9-10). At the beginning of the story, the narrator suggests that they hang out at the park regularly: “That Friday, Carrie and I went to the park for the last time.” (l.1).

The story focuses on Jane's feelings towards her friend Carrie – she is jealous of her looks, and, implicitly, jealous of the attention she is getting: “I was jealous of Carrie’s perfect skin, her coltish legs, her movie-star name. I was just Jane, plain Jane, the girl no one looked twice at.” (ll. 10-11).

The story also suggests that Jane might be jealous when she wonders if Carrie has kissed William: “I wondered if she’d kissed him on the lips. I wondered if she’d opened her mouth.” (ll. 13...