*I deduced that the narrator is a teen because she’s too well written to be very young, but she also makes statements that pull out her childhood innocence and curiosity.
The narrator in “Mixing Cocktails” voices her frustration with being of the age where adult supervision is still required. She shares angst-like teen thoughts that exhibit a bitterness toward the society constructed by adults. The narrator sorely and satirically reflects on adult chides: “One was not to sit in the sun. One had been told not to be in the sun….One would one day regret freckles.” Her expression of distaste for these good intentioned parental cautions augments her status as a typical moody teen. Yet, her thoughts expands into reasonable intellectual territory, condemning adult society. She criticizes society (she uses the word “humanity”) for aggressively interfering with individuals by eliminating the difference between them through a “level up” process.
We can further understand her agony when she directly speaks to the this society. “I am speaking to you; do you not hear? You must break yourself of your habit of never listening.” Her accusatory and attacking language sends a clear message, a call for attention and recognition of those who are silenced because they are “other”. As a teen, the narrator exist in a liminal state, she is within the transition between childhood “otherness” and adulthood. She is in a position of vulnerability because both ages are fraught with appealing and unappealing expectations and responsibilities. (Children with imaginary freedom and physical constriction by adults vs the married, “feather hats” wearing adults with rules for everything) We see the narrator being drawn to an “other” role, one in contrast to the adult society, when she claims a delighted interest in the letters of strangers on the steamers that pass by her home. In an interesting twist the narrator calls the adults of society, the “Other People” (otherness always depending on if you’re on the “right” side). She mockingly declares,
“I long to be like Other People! The extraordinary, ungetatable, oddly cruel Other People, with their way of wantonly hurting and then accusing you of being thin skinned, sulky,vindictive or ridiculous. All because a hurt and puzzled little girl has retired into her shell”
The narrator obviously does not want to be like the “Other People” so then she remains a little girl. But I’m sure she does not want to be a little girl because she’ll still have to put up with adults. On a side note, I thought it was humorous that the narrator referred to her aunt (I think she’s her real aunt) as “The English aunt” to create a formality that, through language, continues to distance the narrator from adults.
I see similarities with the ending of “Mixing Cocktails” and our discussion about Mrs. Dalloway’s party offerings. The narrator assembles like Mrs Dalloway, but with cocktail drinks and not parties. They both provide an important function within society that makes them happy despite all the issues that are rampant within societal systems. The narrator and Dalloway have found their niche