Super Girl Nancy Drew Girl Detective Essay

Super Girl: Nancy Drew, Girl Detective Essay, Research Paper

Super Girl

Growing up, every child has his/her own personal idols, ranging anywhere from He-man to Barbie to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The teenage master sleuth Nancy Drew is one of these prominent figures in the eyes of many young girls. Her stories tell of adventure and mystery, yet they also seem to find a place in there somewhere to reflect the lady-like and proper nature of Miss Drew. Nancy is a paradox, but a paradox that often goes unnoticed. The Nancy Drew stories satisfy two standards, adventure and domesticity, and present them from both sides without once betraying the suspicion that they might contradict each other.

The first thing that we can immediately notice about Nancy is her preference in the color of everything around her, as Bobbie Ann Mason points out (74). Mason notes that Nancy owns a blue car, wears blue clothes, has blue eyes, and even the cover of all the novels about her stories is bright royal blue (74). Our society has tagged the color blue with a strong masculine undertone. A baby boy is given blue rattles, blue toy trucks, and blue blankets. This tells us something about Nancy?s personality; she has an incredibly adventurous attitude, fearlessly encountering life-threatening situations. In The Clue of the Broken Locket, Keene shows one of these instances:

Bess was concerned. ?Why, Nancy, you might have slipped off that roof and been killed!?

Nancy grinned. ?I guess I?m a tough old sleuth,? she answered. (74)

Nancy is, like she said, ?a tough old sleuth,? and she can do more than hold her own in a society that is dominated by men; she excels in it with her superior intellect and keen observational powers. As Mason writes, ?Nancy manages the impossible feat of being wholesomely ?feminine? ? while also proving herself strong, resourceful, and bold, the most independent of the girl sleuths? (74). The reader of a Nancy Drew book never gets to forget the sweetness of our lady-like heroine who wears her blue primly and elegantly (Mason 74).

During the 1930?s and 1940?s, the time period which the original series of Nancy Drew books were written, Nancy?s activities were not always the socially accepted activities of sixteen to eighteen year old girls. So when Miss Drew pulled off stunts like the previously mentioned roof incident on page two, it was shocking to read that a girl of her age would go climbing on a roof and endanger her life in such a way. Then she turns around and acts out the wholesomely feminine expectations of the time with ease, as shown in Keene?s The Clue in the Jewel Box:

As the girls sipped their tea and ate delicious, frosted cakes, their hostess spoke rather sadly of present daily life in her native land so changed from the past. (27-28)

Keene conveys this prim aura that Miss Drew possesses to her readers many times throughout the series of adventures, and the reader usually doesn?t even think twice about excepting this aspect of her character. On the other hand, when Nancy endangers her life almost intentionally, the reader is shocked at first, but then goes on to except the behavior as it is presented and get caught up in the suspense that inevitably follows.

Nancy is also mature well beyond her eighteen years, even for the 1930?s. She has only a shred of childishness in her body, and it only shows itself occasionally. Readers respect Nancy?s seriousness. She rarely loses her cool, and when it does happen, she regains control quickly and easily. Even if she is locked in a room full of spiders, she still acts calmly, unlike almost any stereotypically frightened girl. Instead of getting the ?creeps?, she logically proceeds to find an exit, showing that at all times she possesses infinite amounts of courage and calmness.

Not only is Nancy perfect, but she possesses the ideal qualities of each age and sex: child, teenager, adult, girl, and boy. She has made her stride into adulthood, shown by her incredibly high maturity level and ability to handle most situations calmly and effectively. She passes into male territory smoothly with her amazing boldness and fearless attitude, but she never gives up the conveniences that she has because she is female. According to Mason:

Nancy?s adolescent readers may not know whether to shave their legs and giggle to attract boys they are discovering, or to join the boys? games and emulate them to win their approval, but Nancy does both. (78)

Her child comes out in the occasional giggles that she lets slip every once in a while, usually while she is giddy with relief after a particularly difficult case. Though it is also not often revealed, her teenage side does come forward occasionally, but usually only in the presence of her eternally faithful boyfriend, Ned. In The Secret of the Golden Pavilion, she expresses a rare concern about danger directed toward her boyfriend:

Ned, down on one knee like a football lineman about to charge his opponents, lunged. His shoulder thudded against the masonry.

?Oh, Ned,? Nancy whispered, ?You?ll break a bone.? (172)

These few occurrences put her in better perspective and contribute a touch of realism to her character by showing her acting her actual age.

There are some things in these stories that are subtly more appealing than the car chases, kidna

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