Essay Questions

What does the author’s decision on a title for her novel suggest about the real focus of the story?

Although the surprisingly explicit description of sexuality became the element which elevated the novel to a somewhat legendary status of controversy, the engine driving their narrative is not mere biological urges. The very first line of the novel introduces Sybil as a recognition that such teenage girls do exist and Sybil is definitely an example—if not necessarily a typical one—of the type becomes sexually active solely on the basis of pure biological desire. Katherine and Michael, by contrast, as inextricably linked to the title through repetition of the word “forever” and the engraved necked he gives. These two come together sexually not simply as the result biology, but also in part due to an immature psychology that lets them view their romance as something grander than it really is and is destined to successful test the forces against anything ever lasting forever.

How is Katherine’s narrative perspective toward Jamie used to underscore how her own psychological maturation is not keeping up with her biological maturation?

Katherine comes to a recognition that she is maturing psychologically as well as biologically in her conversation with young sister Jamie in which she now denies what she apparently had steadfastly insisted before: that she was in love with Tommy Aronson. Not all that much time has passed yet now she is ready to identify her feelings for Tommy as “childish infatuation.” It becomes readily apparently, however, that history is about to repeat itself with her current relationship with Michael which she thinks cannot possibly be placed in comparison to her infatuation with Tommy. One very strong clue that Katherine is maturing psychologically but not at nearly the rapidity of her biological maturation is her characterization of her sister’s own first blossoming romance occurring at the exact time that she is overcome with anxiety of being forcibly separated from Michael for several week: “This summer Jamie is going back to camp in New Hampshire. She says she can't wait. It doesn't seem to matter to her that she won't see David for seven weeks, which proves that love at thirteen is nothing like love at eighteen.”

What is Sybil’s role in this tale of sexually active teen romance?

As indicated, the very opening lines of the novel situated Sybil as what would have been reliably termed by many at the time---and more than a few even now—as a slut. That opening line indicates that Sybil has had sexual relations with at least six guys and as the narrative progresses she will go on to experience the ultimate consequence of her promiscuity when she gives birth to a baby she gives up for adoption. Even this consequence is not enough to deter Sybil from her previous ways, however, as she confesses that she plans to get an IUD birth control device to prevent pregnancy rather than adopting abstinence for the same purpose because, as she explains, “I have no intention of giving up sex.”

On the surface, Sybil would be expected to be portrayed as just another addition to a long stereotype in fiction of the promiscuous teenager: more flash than brains, with a bigger bustline than IQ. In fact, the first six words of the novel inform the reader that Sybil has an IQ and she will eventually go on to be accepted into a very prestigious women's college that can afford to accept only the most elite students. Rather than being a bubble-headed bimbo forced to get by on her looks, she is psychoanalyzed by friends as suffering low self-esteem as a result of being overweight. In other words, one look at her and most people would toss her into the “good girl” stereotype rather than tagging her as a “bad girl.” In this way, the author forces readers—more so at the time of publication than now—to reassess preconceived notions about “good girls” and “bad girls” in which media stereotypes defined behavioral expectations for decades.