Get In Trouble, By Kelly Link

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Envy and Love
In Kelly Link’s collection of short stories Get in Trouble, the story “The New Boyfriend” talks about how envy in relationships and how it is a metaphor for relationships we have in the real world. One reviewer writes, “Link perfectly mimics the cadences of teenagers talking to one another, the sniping and jealousy and longing. The story is hilarious as it plays with romance and vampire conventions, and it’s explores the notion of teenagers girls trying on love for the first time, and figuring out what it is you’re “supposed” to do”(Wolitzer np). In this story, Link focuses on how adolescents deal with jealousy and love when trying to navigate relationships. In order to understand how relationships work in this story, the encounters …show more content…

Even though Immy and Ainslie have been friends for a long time, they still have their up and downs. “Immy’s heart isn’t as big as Ainslie’s heart. Immy loves Ainslie best. She also hates her best. She’s had a lot of practice at both” (Link 216). Immy loves Ainslie, but she also hates her too. Even the best friends can hate on each other at times. The writer talks about how jealous and envy relates to relationships between best friends. In the everyday world, people struggle with jealous in all their relationships.
Immy is jealous that Ainslie gets the new boyfriend, even though they got recalled. “Why does Ainslie always get what she wants? Why does Ainslie always get what Immy wants? She says, “They don’t. You can’t get them now.” “Not unless you’re Ainslie, right?”” (Link 217-18). This quote is saying that Ainslie always gets what she wants. The new boyfriend got recall, but Ainslie somehow still got the boyfriend for a birthday present. Immy was very jealous of her because she really wanted the new boyfriend …show more content…

Ainslie’s mom is very jealous of her daughter. Her mom is trying to relive her youth through her daughter. Ainslie puts a streak of red in her hair. “At school two days later Ainslie tells them about how her mom went and put a streak of red in her own hair. She’s so angry she cries. They all hug her, and then Immy helps her cut all the red right out with a pair of scissors in the art room. All Immy wants, at that moment, is for Ainslie to be as happy as Immy is” (Link 247). Ainslie is so annoyed and mad that her mom copied her by putting a streak of red in her

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