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How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a short story that depicts the unfamiliarities of teenage boys to girls, and discusses the common, yet tricky maturation that everyone experiences at one point. It is common to find difficulty to connect with those who are different from us, it is especially true for those who are young and naive like the main characters Enn and Vic in the story. The author creatively portrays these challenges through the parallelization of girls with aliens. Hence why the story follows a theme of discovery, unfamiliarity, and coming of age, as the two main characters face the trials of entering a party, which, unbeknownst to them is filled with aliens disguised as girls.

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The story follows two young boys, Enn and Vic, who are close friends but have seemingly different personalities. Enn having a more introverted personality finds difficulty in connecting with girls, while Vic is a more outgoing, charming, and charismatic young man who finds no difficulty in it whatsoever, having had the experience with a few girlfriends in the past. The story is told 30 years from when the events took place and is told from the point of view of Enn, and who acts as a narrator and tells the story from a first-person point of view. He conveys the story as if he is talking about his past to another person, recalling the events of that fateful night. When the events occurred, the two boys were both fifteen years old as a line in the story states “But I was only fifteen then”.

While not much is explicitly said about Enn, we can tell from the details of the story that he has difficulty interacting with women. He says that he comes from an all-boys school, which explains why he has little experience with women. His only experience was the kisses from his sister's friends which did not involve any talking. On the other hand, much is said about Vic in the story. Enn describes his apparent jealousy toward Vic as he does not deal with the same struggles as him. It is hinted that Vic had more experience with women, even if they hail from the same all-boys school, because of his previous girlfriends. While it was not unequivocally mentioned, it is also hinted that Vic is the better-looking one of the two, as his “wicked smile” is repeatedly mentioned. Being that Enn is the more unfamiliar one out of the two when it comes to women, having his point of view further enhances the themes of unfamiliarity and discovery, of which the story is revolved around.

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The location of the story was never explicitly mentioned either, though, from the dialogue between Enn and Wein’s Wein, we can see that the events took place in Croydon, London. The time of the events was never clearly stated either, though the story mentions that it took place during the ‘early days of punk’ and mentions well-known artists like the Sex Pistols and David Bowie, so we can assume that it took place in the late 70s to early 80s

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The main conflict of the story is the differences between the alien girls and the two boys, causing problems for both of them as they inevitably run out of the party in haste. At the beginning of the story, Enn and Vic are two teenagers who decide to go attend one of their friend’s parties. They end up getting lost at Vic forgets the paper on which the address is written and find themselves at a completely different party. The door is opened by a girl who catches the attention of the two boys, particularly Vic who makes a move and decides to stay at this party instead. Enn ends up following suit. Vic spends most of the night with Stella, the girl who opened the door for them, sharing a few intimate moments with her. Enn on the other hand, notices some strange details from the party, starting of with the music that the people were dancing to. He ends up speaking to three different girls, Wein’s Wein, the tooth-gaped girl, and finally Triolet.

For the first two girls, he struggles to interact with them. They spoke in a different manner and spoke of things that brought confusion to Enn. Although since Enn wanted to bond and connect with girls, he brushed these strange characteristics off. His efforts did not amount to much with the first two girls, though Vic got quite lucky and was able to bring Stella upstairs. Frustrated, Enn decided to explore more of the party, and that was when he met Triolet. Things took a different turn this time. While still confused by the strangeness of Triolet, her good looks, were enough for Enn to stay and they were able to kiss and share a few close moments with her.

This was when Vic sprinted down and forced Enn to rush out of the party. Enn unwantedly follows while Triolet is saddened, wanting to speak more with Enn. While they leave in a haste, Enn sees Stella looking down at the two with a vicious glare. As Vic panics and rushes away while not being able to thoroughly explain the situation.

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The story can be interpreted in many different ways. However, I think that the story is a way for the writer to convey the struggles of people connecting with those from different societal or even cultural backgrounds. I think that the parallelization of girls with aliens is a metaphor for portraying people of different gender with different backgrounds. The term ‘tourists’ was often used in the story, which I think further validates the idea given by the metaphor.

At one point, I think that everyone has dealt with the same issues that the two boys struggled with in the story. The struggle of being in unfamiliar territory, and stepping out of their usual comfort zone to be able to achieve a deeper and more meaningful connection with others from different backgrounds. The idea of being able to discover new insights from new people while being able to rationalize the proper actions for the given scenario, is all part of growing up and in this story, the author was able to portray these feelings in a familiar, yet unique way that is appealing to the readers.

As a teenager, I somewhat see myself and my friends in the main characters Enn and Vic, making me realize what I am going through and letting me feel that the feelings of doubt, and discomfort, are normal and something that we all deal with.

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The story in itself was a great success, leading to two different iterations of the story, one being in a comic book, and the other reaching movie screens with a new, and more modern movie adaptation. The story effectively shows the struggles of teen life and the ventures of young men who unknowingly put themselves in awkward situations with new ideas, insights, and information that they themselves are unsure of how to use or deal with. The story is not only an insightful one, but one that also caters to its target audience, being young teenagers by having an eye-catching title, but also having a great twist of events that readers are able to synthesize without losing the initial interest that they began the story with.