The Roaring Girl

When Greg Hollingshead published “The Roaring Girl” in 1995, critics recognized its sharp detail and unusual points of view. The boy’s point of view dominates the story, and while age and inexperience often limit his perspective—he mixes up “cunt” and “punt”—he may be the story’s most insightful character. He observes everyone with constant vigilance, especially monitoring the wellbeing of his parents and their interactions and vulnerabilities. He is keen on anything that may upset the balance of their world. Aware that his lack of knowledge of the wider world limits his understandings, he wants to learn more to become less vulnerable. The boy wishes that his father could do the same. While he admires his father’s great size, the boy sees him as vulnerable to the forces of the world, as symbolized by the man’s mangled fingernail.

The mother’s pregnancy is another threat, signaling danger and vulnerability. When the boy learns she had a stillborn baby who would have been named Jim, his own name, this creates for the boy a strange intimacy and rivalry with the dead brother. He fantasizes about how the dead Jim would be much better equipped at handling life, ironically idealizing the dead brother as a survivalist. When the boy struggles to deal with customers at the station, the boy imagines dead Jim having no trouble with the shop and its customers with their unexpected ways and conversations. He even imagines that the dead Jim might disapprove of some of the impractical ideas of the father.

Later, the girl dominates the boy’s world with her powerful presence. She symbolizes a strength the boy lacks but deeply desires. Even though the girl is hungry and unwell when they first meet, she quickly regains her strength and proves herself to be the strongest character in the shop, where she does most of the work. The boy marvels at her ability to work in the station; for example, she is the only one skilled at fixing cars. Meanwhile, the title “The Roaring Girl” highlights the girl’s brash, blunt, often vulgar speech. Her “roar” sets her apart from the boy and his family, who often suffer from quiet miscommunication. While everyone else speaks politely and hesitantly around the girl, she hurls obscenities without a second thought.

Aside from admiring her strength, the boy desires a deep connection with the girl, which she denies him. As the boy hovers around the girl, she does not share anything personal about herself, nor does she express much interest in the boy, which frustrates him. The girl often forgets the boy is even there; when he speaks, she is surprised.

Nevertheless, the boy's summer with the girl transforms him. Although he will later forget her name, he will never forget his joy in having shared a walk down the street with her, an almost sacred memory to the boy. The author writes:

He will never remember where they were going or what they did there, but he will […] remember only his amazement at the time that they should be moving along at the same pace, that he should be contained in any form at all within that alien, unconscionable mind. And his heart will just roar (74).

This final sentence shows that even though the girl looks at the boy rarely, she still thinks of him, holding him in her mind as she speaks to him. The boy revels in the idea of their communion, if for only the briefest of moments. The girl’s acknowledgement of his existence allows him the freedom and joy to roar.