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Essay / Lee is in The Trap: a close reading of "Prep"
Prep, written by Curtis Sittenfeld in 2005, was a New York Times bestseller. This account provides insight into the prestigious boarding school experiences of a poor girl named Lee Fiora, originally from Indiana. The author directly reveals the struggles involving social class and race relations at the end of the novel by setting up an interview between Lee and New York Times reporter Angela Varizi. The resulting article suggests that the differences created by social class disparities make Lee an outsider on campus. After all, Lee says she feels left out by her wealthier classmates. It is indeed possible that Lee gives his negative ideas about Ault, his school, to take revenge. However, Lee's preparations before the interview and her reactions to the aftermath show that she unconsciously portrays Ault negatively. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Lee intends to say something positive that will benefit Ault. She prepares standard answers to the questions that Varizi may ask: “I had developed two standard answers to this question, which I varied depending on my audience” (357). The two answers to the question “Why did you go to Ault?” are not Lee's true thoughts about Ault and both responses are white lies. Lee first responds that she went to Ault because she saw Ault's catalog on TV shows and in Seventeen magazine, and is attracted to the glamorous campus. She then says that Ault students have a variety of resources and that students and teachers have closer connections due to the small class sizes. The answers Lee originally prepares are impeccable. When Varizi tries to seduce Lee into telling the truth at first, Lee still defends Ault's advantages. Varizi asks, “I wonder if you think professors show favoritism toward wealthy students. “No, not really” (359). Lee says that there is a young teacher who is friendly with the "bank boy" in his class, but Lee carefully defends Ault by explaining that the teacher has a closer relationship with the "bank boys" not because that they are rich, but because the teacher dragged them into the football team. Lee intends to paint a positive image of Ault in aspects of social class, but Lee does not realize that the term "bank boy" may be cited by Varizi as a selling point for his article. Lee unconsciously refers to the “bank boy,” revealing the extent of class tensions on campus. Once Lee finds out that Angela Varizi is going to put "bank boy" in the article, Lee stares at her: "Please don't" (360). She begs Varizi not to include such words because she knows that serious consequences can result from her unconscious mistakes. When we travel through the four years of Lee's life, we can clearly discern Lee's personality in Ault. She is calm and speaks little in class. She is not exceptional either in studies or in sports. She doesn't want to attract attention from others; even when she is in a bad state, she still wants to hide her emotions. Lee wants to be a transparent and invisible person in Ault because she is very concerned about her appearance, social class, and wealth. Lee actually panics about the consequences of self-revelation: “My heart was pounding and my fingers were trembling” (369). With that kind of personality, how can she hope to portray Ault in a negative light? She probably knows that if she says something.