Julia

In Owl, people did not date; if you went on a date, you were dating. If you went on two dates, it was an exclusive relationship. If you went on three dates, it was a serious relationship and there was potential for marriage. You could hang out with members of the opposite sex whenever you wanted, and you could get drunk with them in public, and you could even find yourself having clandestine sex with one of them, possible on multiple occasions. But you couldn't make plans. Going on a proper, recognized date was different; when someone asked you on a date, they were actively asking if you'd be interested in a committed relastionship. When all theose curiously nicknamed men asked julia to see movies, they were really asking if she might consider sharing her life. Because-if a shared life was the life you wanted, and you wanted to share such a life without leaving Owl- there were no other options. If Julia didn't like you, no one could ever say, "Well, there's a lot of other fish in the sea." There was one fish, and it lived in a lake with no tributaries, and all the completing villagers read Field & Stream with extreme prejudice. The arrival of an unattached female teacher was a romantic race against time. And no matter how much she enjoyed her insular celebrity, (and regardless of how nicely these desperate, lonely men seemed to treat her) Julia knew that was perverse. She thought about it all the time
(Klosterman).

I chose this passage because it reminded me of Decatur. Decatur is some what the same. You can't really date someone unless you really plan on going out with them. And nobody really dates. In the beginning of every relationship you call it dating but there are never actual dates involved. There are certain steps to a Decatur relationship (and I guess an Owl relationship also). You hang out for however ling it takes, your friends begin to relise that your spending and uncanny amount of time with this one person, then your friends start asking you about it and you eventually call it dating. I guess this passage just reminded me of how Decatur really is a small town. A small town that just not in the middle of nowhere like Owl. Of course no one in Decatur High is really expecting that dating someone will lead to a life time with them but in a way thats kind of what happens. I've gone out with different people but I've only ever been on two actual dates and that relastionship lasted for about 5 or 6 months. So maybe the auther wanted Owl to seem complex (and maybe it is, and the only reason I can read between the lines is because Decatur actually is a small town) but it's not really. Everybody knows every, or has some restated impression of them, and normally that restated impression leads to how you feel about them up until you actually meet them. This related to Owl because Julia has two friends and every time one of these men asks her on a date, gets declined, and walks away, her two friends always give her the feed back on that person. Which is EMENCLY like Decatur. I just wonder why Decatur students try to act to adult, I mean all the adults in the midwest seem to be doing the exact same thing.