Essential Elements 5: Power Struggles, Clashes, and Social Dynamics
Power Struggles, Clashes, and Social Dynamics
Introduction
With so many
intense, driven, ambitious people populating these schools, it’s only natural
that power dynamics play a large role. There’s a social order, and Heaven help
those who wittingly or unwittingly violate it, by crossing a queen bee or alpha
male. Cliques abound, secret societies influence events, and it’s easy to fall
from grace. Frankie Landau-Banks works behind the scenes to usurp control of
the Bassetts after her initial ambitions are thwarted, while Skylar Hoffman
loses her beloved dorm assignment along with her social standing, leading to
the necessary reinvention of her entire identity. Sometimes, the power clash is
between students; sometimes it involves the faculty and administration. Either
way, the struggle for dominance, for influence, and for recognition, adds extra
punch to the plot.
Relevant Passages:
1)
“What’s the point, then?”
“Power, I guess.”
“What?”
“Like Senior’s always saying: It’s how the world works. People form these bonds at school.”
“Oh, give me a break, Frankie. Hi, Saffron, just a minute, I’m on with my sister and she’s stressing about some boy thing. Are you seriously going to tell me you buy into the patriarchal notion that power is localized in institutions created years and years ago by people who were overly proud of themselves for having the male set of genitalia, and most of whom are either dead or drooling over themselves in nursing homes by this point?”
“Well—“
“Please, that is so antiquated. The institutions of male supremacy only have real power over you if you buy into that notion. Go found our own club and tell them they can’t join. Or better yet, drop the idea of clubs altogether because they’re exclusionary and embrace some other, more flexible way of connecting with people.”
“But Zada.” Frankie wanted to explain about the door being closed, about wanting to push through the door, about wanting not to fell small and second-best at the table. But Zada cut her off.
--The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart.
Passage analysis
In this passage, the protagonist, Frankie Landau-Banks, gets a stern piece of advice from her older sister Zada, who graduated from Alabaster Prep the year before, and who is thus intimately familiar with the power structures and dynamics not just of the school, but of its distinguished alumni, such as their father, “Senior,” who was also a member of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound in his own time. Frankie chafes at being excluded and overlooked, underappreciated and underestimated. Unlike Zada, who either works around the system or seems intent upon ignoring it in favor of a better solution, Frankie yearns to join the Order despite the barriers set up against her. As we see later in the story, she finds a way to anonymously usurp control of the Order and to use its members to carry out her own status challenging agenda. Zada might eschew such things, advising Frankie to found her own club or reject such exclusionary ideas, but Frankie just wants to be acknowledged and accepted. She wants to be part of that social structure, that brotherhood, for all that it entails and represents. And if she can’t be part of it, she’ll find a way to take it over and make them serve her, even if it’s in secret. Ultimately, when her role in the affair is revealed, she’ll lose control once again, but during her time as the invisible leader of the Order, she wields its resources and members as a tool to attempt to effect change, social awareness, and a rewriting of traditional boundaries. This passage is important because it demonstrates her reaction to the more sensible and safe advice of someone who knows both her and the situation.
2)
“Right. You were saying something about ousting some very well-liked and respected members of our community from their positions on the most influential student-run organization at Winthrop,” Marshall says.
“That’s a good summary,” I agree. “But I wouldn’t say the most influential.” I smile at him, which causes him to roll his eyes and groan again.
“It’s an accepted fact that the Calendar impacts students’ lives in a more tangible way,” he says. “I made peace with this long ago.”
“Okay, but we would actually challenge the statement that those students in question are, in fact, likable,” Jess says. Opal nods.
“And respected,” I say.
“You’ve had a tiff with your bestie,” Marshall says. “Be honest, isn’t this a bit of an overreaction?”
“If that’s all it was, then yes, But it’s truly not personal. It’s about the chokehold the Calendar has over everything. They’re archaic,” I say.
“And un-diverse,” Jess says. “Our goal isn’t to go wild and introduce all sorts of deviant stuff. Don’t worry, Marshall, we know enough about tradition to keep it alive and well.”
“We just want a true representation of the students’ interests,” Opal says.
“What you’re proposing doesn’t sound completely objectionable, if only it didn’t involve taking people’s leadership positions away from them,” Marshall says.”
--Going Geek, by Charlotte Huang.
3)
And, on the topic of being excited and nervous, that night during the first week of school—the night I’d made out with Megan Renshaw—I remember that when I got back to my room, I could hardly face Chas. I felt like I had stolen something, but I felt damned good about it too. And after that, anytime Chas laid it on thick with his put-downs and threats, I’d just smirk and think to myself, Your girlfriend puts her tongue in my mouth and she likes it, and my smirk would piss off Chas even more because he had no idea why I had suddenly become so confident around him.
--Winger, by Andrew Smith
Multimodal works
Annotated Scholarly References
Anisha Khan, Manisha Jain, & Chhaya Budhwani. (2015). An analytical cross-sectional study of peer pressure on adolescents. International Journal of Reproduction, 4(3), 606-610.
This study examines the role of peer pressure among teens, and how it can have both a positive and negative influence on them, such as improved academic performance, or increased drinking and smoking. Peer pressure factors into social dynamics as well, leading to incidents as mentioned above, with teen protagonists jockeying for influence and power, or seeking revenge, among other actions.
Merten, Don E. “The Meaning of Meanness: Popularity, Competition, and Conflict among Junior High School Girls.” Sociology of Education, vol. 70, no. 3, 1997, pp. 175–191
While an older study, this paper looks at the “mean girl” phenomenon which has become an essential trope in middle grade and young adult fiction. It examines the power dynamic, struggle for dominance and popularity, and the effect it has upon both perpetrators and victims, themes which recur with great regularity in YA literature and in school settings.
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