Analysis

Here, we present you the main topics we focus on in the next pages when analyzing the short story “Popular Girls” by Karen Shepard.

The short story is structured as a self-portrait of a collective narrator—of five popular girls. The story is constructed using sarcasm, irony, and contrasts, and only loosely follows a traditional plot line.

The most important characters are the five girls that function as a collective narrator. The parents, other students, and the three men are secondary characters that help the author convey more details about the girls and the social setting.

The social setting is illustrated through the physical setting, the characters, and the action. The story conveys aspects about social class, materialism and pop culture, teenage sexuality and drug use.

“Popular Girls” is a first-person narration. The narrator assumes the group identity and uses the first-person plural to convey the group’s point of view.

The language of the story is explicit, descriptive, and detailed. The choice of words reflects materialism and pop culture, with numerous references to fashion, brands, music bands, and popular clubs in 1980s’ New York.

Read the entire analysis of the story in the next pages.