Switch Written by Gish Jen - Essay Example

In Mona’s school, there is a girl known as Danielle Meyers. This girl is somewhat of a competition for Mona and she even gives us a detailed description of her that Danielle Meyers wears blue mascara and that she is said to have kissed two boys (Gina, 1999). Danielle Meyers is said to have French-kissed one boy and given the other boy a regular kiss since he had braces. This story of kissing two boys makes Mona envious and she begins looking for a boy that she will kiss for her story to be passed around (Gina, 1999).

Mona lies to her friends that she knows karate since her ancestors, the Chinese, are believed to have been skilled in karate. This is just a lie but Mona does not mind as she would do anything for fame (Gina, 1999). Mona is the type of person who tells one lie after another without even blinking. She tells her friends that a woman can get pregnant by drinking tea. She also tells them that the brains of monkeys are a delicacy for the Chinese (Gina, 1999). Most of the cultural food of Chinese is tomatoes, nothing resembling monkey brains. Mona brags about how her mother’s cooking is off the charts and that her cooking is not even in the cookbooks.

Their jealousy of Mona towards the fact that Danielle Meyers kissed two boys drives her to peer pressure when she starts looking for a befriend to kiss too so that her story will be aired by everyone. Mons’s teacher introduces Sherman to Mona as the new boy in class and she may guide him in the first few days at school. Mona thinks that Sherman is cute and begins falling in love with home (Gina, 1999). Mona is crazily in love and does a lot to show this such as decorating his books, having lunch always with him, and taking him places such as the candy store and the bagel store which turns out to be great since Sherman is crazy about bagels (Gina, 1999).

It comes at a time when Mona knows that Sherman will be leaving in a month. Mona is only worried that he might leave without kissing her. This is because there have been very many situations in which she could have been kissed by Sherman but the boy only kissed her hand. So far, her efforts have made Sherman kiss her on the cheeks repeatedly and Mona says that she will take it personally if he never kisses her (Gina, 1999).

At the end of the year, Sherman leaves and Mona writes to her. Sherman realizes that Mona was only using him for her fame in school and gets upset and breaks up with her. This leaves Mona heartbroken at the end of the story (Gina, 1999).