The Girls

Cline’s use of flashbacks and flash forwards gives Evie’s character more dimension. In describing how Evie operates in the world as an adult, Cline demonstrates the lasting effect of Evie’s trauma from the summer of 1969. The parallel plot of Evie and Sasha also helps Cline comment on the ways men abuse girls and girls consequently lose their sense of self. Evie sees herself in Sasha and projects her past onto Sasha. Sasha is in a dangerous situation; Julian and Zav sexually objectify Sasha in ways that are uncomfortable and abusive, but Sasha pretends not to mind because she wants to believe that Julian loves her. This is the same dynamic Evie once had with Russell and Suzanne. As a teenager, Evie engaged in sex that she wasn’t emotionally equipped to consent to and wasn’t comfortable with. She discarded her sense of self for Russell and Suzanne because she didn’t want to be considered difficult or risk losing their attention. Evie confused sexual attention with love, and Sasha repeats that pattern. Evie tries to save Sasha by allying herself with her, but Sasha lives for her desires and is insecure about love. As a result, she rejects Evie’s help and attention. Sasha clearly has no one else to turn to, but Evie had once falsely believed that she had no other option as well. Sasha’s story is, to Evie and to Cline, the story of many girls who get caught up in sexualization, confusing relationships that look like love but aren’t, and a lack of self-confidence. Sasha as the mirror image of a young Evie emphasizes the timelessness of the theme of The Perils Teenage Girls Face.

As a teenager, Evie needed women to attach herself to. When she spends two weeks with her father and Tamar, she projects what she used to need from Suzanne onto Tamar, minus the sexual desire she feels for Suzanne. Evie needs a female role model to help her define her identity. Suzanne becomes that woman for Evie. Evie wants to mimic Suzanne’s wild style, carefree attitude, and rejection of societal rules. But when Suzanne is not in her life, Evie searches for another role model. In Tamar, Evie finds a stable, calm relationship. Tamar is young enough to connect with Evie. Because she is still trying on identities, Evie starts dressing like Tamar and spending time with Tamar. But Evie’s relationship with Tamar is complicated by the fact that Tamar is Evie’s father’s younger girlfriend. Tamar and Evie’s father experience conflict, and this conflict confuses Evie because she doesn’t understand that even healthy, solid relationships have conflict. Evie falsely believes that the relationships at the ranch, the ones that are fluid and defined by the idea of free love, exist without conflict. For Evie, this is not an ideal but a reality. However, Evie is too young and inexperienced to understand the danger and manipulation inherent in the relationships at the ranch. In comparison, Tamar’s relationship with Evie’s father is healthy, but Evie refuses to see this. Evie’s rejection of social norms in relationships highlights the theme of Social Disillusionment.

Evie is so blinded by her desire to make the commune what she wants it to be that she ignores obvious signs that things have gone very wrong at the ranch. Evie puts her hope into Suzanne because she attaches her identity to Suzanne. Without Suzanne, Evie has no sense of self. Therefore, when she returns to the ranch to find it embattled by poverty and anger, she tries to see it in a positive light and not for the danger that it poses. She tries to see Suzanne as the cool girl who has taken Evie under her wing—not as the mean girl that Suzanne truly is. The downfall of the commune is brought on by Russell’s hubris. Russell wants to be worshipped and adored, and he’s accustomed to getting what he wants through his careful manipulation. But Mitch can’t and won’t secure Russell’s fame, which is what Russell wants more than anything else. Russell’s heightened spirituality is just a cover for his pride and ambition. When he doesn’t get what he wants from Mitch, Russell hangs onto anger and leans into his power over others to avenge his pride. These serious flaws are obvious, but Evie doesn’t want to face reality.

Evie narrowly misses being a mass murderer. Her obsession with Suzanne backfires when she extends herself too much to Suzanne and Suzanne becomes annoyed with her. Ironically, Suzanne’s rejection ultimately saves Evie from the guilt and horror of murder and a lifetime in prison. In hindsight, Evie can recognize that she would have been capable of murder. One thing she can sympathize with in Suzanne is Suzanne’s hatred. Evie has also been abused by men and by the world around her, so she knows what it feels like to hate something or someone so much. But there’s a difference between being capable of committing murder and actually killing men, women, and children as they beg for mercy. Evie may believe that she’s capable of murder, but, luckily, she never got the opportunity to test this belief. Instead, Suzanne rejects and therefore saves her.

Just as with the Manson Family murders, the murders that Suzanne and the others commit fundamentally change the culture of American suburbia. In the 1960s, Americans did not feel that the world around them was unsafe. Doors were left unlocked, children were free to roam the streets without their parents, and no one thought that something as horrifying as a break-in and ritualistic murder could happen in their neighborhoods. The murders of Linda, Christopher, Gwen, and Scotty shock America into paranoia. The Manson Family murders are also considered a turning point in American culture because of the fear these murders instilled in the public. The Manson Family murders became an exemplar of everything wrong with counterculture, so Americans nestled deeper into their need for safety and conformity while becoming increasingly paranoid that danger lurked in their neighborhoods. This emphasizes the theme of Social Disillusionment.

Evie also lives in constant multilayered fear because of the murders. Knowing that she came so close to being a murderer, she fears and doubts herself. She finds it difficult to trust herself if she can be so blind to evil as to participate in it. Evie also fears others because she trusted people who committed heinous crimes. That she was so attracted to bloodthirsty people who have no respect for human life and dignity means Evie must share some of their traits, and that knowledge makes her fearful. She is also scared of being caught as one of them. There once was a time when Evie wanted nothing but to be considered part of the “we” at the ranch. Now, Evie is frightened that someone will name her as part of Russell’s group of murderers. Evie also has reason to fear violence. To love and be so close to people capable of such violence disconnects Evie from her instincts. Evie spends her life scared of other people because she now knows what people are capable of. In the final moments of the novel, Evie becomes scared of a stranger on the beach who means her no harm. This man demonstrates Evie’s paranoia that violence can be around every corner. While Evie was able to live a life beyond the ranch, her life has been mostly lonely and isolated. That summer of 1969 taught Evie to fear herself, others, and life itself.