Chap­ter 39 opens with the pro­tag­o­nist reflect­ing on a lit­er­a­ture class that explores the por­tray­al of women in lit­er­a­ture. The class focus­es on pow­er­ful authors such as Jane Austen, Alice Walk­er, Maya Angelou, and Sylvia Plath, but there is a par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on Mary Shelley’s Franken­stein and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vin­di­ca­tion of the Rights of Woman. The pro­tag­o­nist appre­ci­ates the depth and com­plex­i­ty with which female writ­ers rep­re­sent women, con­trast­ing them with male authors who tend to depict women as either vic­tims or mere arche­types. This dis­tinc­tion offers the pro­tag­o­nist a sense of empow­er­ment, as the works they study reflect women in all their com­plex­i­ty, encour­ag­ing the pro­tag­o­nist to view her­self and oth­er women as mul­ti­fac­eted indi­vid­u­als rather than just pas­sive fig­ures in a patri­ar­chal nar­ra­tive.

As the class con­cludes, the teacher, Mrs. Riley, encour­ages the pro­tag­o­nist to par­tic­i­pate in an essay con­test and slides a pink sheet of paper across the desk. Despite her enthu­si­asm for the idea, the pro­tag­o­nist feels a sense of dread about the task, unsure of how to approach the prompts. She express­es her fear that she may not be able to artic­u­late her thoughts effec­tive­ly, a con­cern that makes her hes­i­tate. Mrs. Riley, how­ev­er, urges her to push past these self-doubts, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of find­ing her voice, espe­cial­ly as a bud­ding jour­nal­ist. She reas­sures the pro­tag­o­nist that the recog­ni­tion from win­ning the con­test could open new oppor­tu­ni­ties, encour­ag­ing the pro­tag­o­nist to see this as a chance for growth and self-expres­sion. This push from Mrs. Riley helps the pro­tag­o­nist under­stand the val­ue of per­se­ver­ance and self-belief, espe­cial­ly in the face of doubt.

While con­sid­er­ing the con­test, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on the sym­bol­ism of a crow in ancient folklore—a bird that drops peb­bles into a water con­tain­er to raise the lev­el, enabling it to drink. The crow’s per­sis­tence becomes a metaphor for her own jour­ney, sug­gest­ing that small, con­sis­tent efforts can even­tu­al­ly lead to suc­cess. Although the essay con­test may not imme­di­ate­ly pro­pel her toward her ulti­mate goal of attend­ing NYU, the pro­tag­o­nist rec­og­nizes that each effort, no mat­ter how small, could bring her one step clos­er. The real­iza­tion shifts her per­spec­tive, help­ing her see that progress doesn’t always have to come in giant leaps, but in tiny steps for­ward that, over time, accu­mu­late into mean­ing­ful achieve­ments. This moment of clar­i­ty fuels the protagonist’s deter­mi­na­tion to par­tic­i­pate in the con­test, as she begins to view the chal­lenge as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op her voice rather than a daunt­ing task.

As the pro­tag­o­nist con­tem­plates pos­si­ble ideas for her essay, a more con­tro­ver­sial notion arises—one that might not be well received by the con­test judges, a group of men who are often resis­tant to change or new ideas. She con­sid­ers the impli­ca­tions of pre­sent­ing a view­point that could chal­lenge the sta­tus quo, espe­cial­ly in a com­mu­ni­ty where tra­di­tion­al norms are heav­i­ly adhered to. The pro­tag­o­nist recalls a humil­i­at­ing class­room moment when a male teacher ridiculed a female stu­dent who had been a vic­tim of harass­ment, effec­tive­ly silenc­ing her. This inci­dent serves as a reminder of how women’s voic­es are often dis­missed or belit­tled, a theme that has per­vad­ed the protagonist’s life. In addi­tion to this mem­o­ry, the pro­tag­o­nist notices the unset­tling dynam­ics between men and her moth­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly when men treat her moth­er dis­mis­sive­ly at the din­er. These obser­va­tions under­score the per­va­sive cul­ture of min­i­miz­ing women’s voic­es and expe­ri­ences, fur­ther fuel­ing the protagonist’s desire to speak out.

Ulti­mate­ly, the pro­tag­o­nist strug­gles with the idea of speak­ing out in a town that seems to main­tain its rigid struc­ture through fear and con­for­mi­ty. She under­stands that chal­leng­ing the estab­lished norms could threat­en the very foun­da­tions of her com­mu­ni­ty, which has long relied on the sup­pres­sion of dis­sent­ing voic­es. As she reflects on this, she grap­ples with the idea that some truths, if spo­ken, could unrav­el the sta­tus quo and dis­rupt the com­fort­able com­pla­cen­cy that so many take for grant­ed. The ten­sion between per­son­al truth and soci­etal expec­ta­tions weighs heav­i­ly on her, as she con­tem­plates the poten­tial con­se­quences of speak­ing out. This chap­ter high­lights the risks asso­ci­at­ed with chal­leng­ing deeply ingrained sys­tems of pow­er, as well as the per­son­al toll it may take on those brave enough to push against them. The protagonist’s reflec­tions on the nature of change sug­gest that while progress is nec­es­sary, it comes with inher­ent risks that can dis­rupt not only indi­vid­ual lives but entire com­mu­ni­ties.