George

George is moved to tears at the end of Ms. Udell’s reading of Charlotte’s Web, when Charlotte “the wonderful, kind spider” dies (11). Rick and Jeff, the two class bullies, laugh, saying “some girl is crying over a dead spider” (12). When they realize the crier is George, who they consider “close enough” to a girl, they collapse into hysterics (12). Ms. Udell disciplines the bullies and tells George that “it takes a special person to cry over a book” and that one day, she will “turn into a fine young man” (15). George is devastated at the thought of becoming a man, which “was a hundred times worse than boy” (16). Ms. Udell responds by giving George a pass to “the worst room in the school,” the boys’ bathroom (16).

Ms. Udell announces that the school will do a play of Charlotte’s Web and that their class, the fourth grade, will be the actors. George and her best friend Kelly plan to spend the weekend practicing for the auditions. George is troubled, because she wants to play Charlotte. Kelly shrugs and says that George should have a go at the role, because “who cares if you’re not really a girl?” (23). However, George cares thoroughly and later dreams that she is playing Charlotte.

George lives with her mother (Mom) and brother (Scott). Her father has remarried and lives in the Pocono Mountains, where George and Scott visit every summer. In George’s opinion, “Dad made a better part-time father than a full-time one” (26).

On Sunday afternoon, George goes over to Kelly’s to practice for the audition. Kelly lives with her musician father, Paul. Kelly thinks it is great that George is trying out for Charlotte and explains how male actors played female roles in Shakespeare’s time. George cannot find the words to explain that “playing a girl part wouldn’t be pretending” (32). Charlotte’s lines feel natural to George who “could have read Charlotte’s words all day long” (36). Afterwards, Kelly, a budding photographer, tries to pose George for a picture. George gets frustrated with the poses but finds it easier to go along with what Kelly wants than to argue.

At home, while George waits for her mother to prepare dinner, she takes a bath and “tried not to think about what was between her legs, but there it was, bobbing in front of her” (44-5). Afterwards, “she wrapped the towel around her torso, up by the armpits the way girls do” and brushes her hair forward, before resuming her original boyish style (45).

At dinner, George contemplates bringing up the subject of her girlhood with her mother and recalls an interview she saw on television with “a beautiful woman named Tina” who identifies as “a transgender woman” (46). George knows about available surgeries and even androgen blocking pills that “stopped the boy hormones already inside you from turning your body into a man’s” (47). Sensing that something is wrong, Mom encourages George to confide in her and says that whatever happens, “You will always be my little boy” (47). George realizes that she will have to one day tell her mom that she is really a girl, but for now, she has “no idea” how to do that (49).

The next day at school, while George and Kelly are waiting to audition, George’s nerves escalate. At recess, George is reluctant to practice because of what children in the playground might think of her reading a girl’s lines. Kelly remarks that her father says “it’s important, as an artist to be in touch with his feminine side” (60). George has read about this idea in one of her father’s magazines, but she was disappointed because the text “kept reminding the reader that finding your feminine side made you more of a man” (60). George worries that she is weird.