“The Semplica Girl Diaries” by George Saunders is a first person narrative by a less-than-affluent father of two daughters and one son. The narrative is written as journal entries that span over a year in time, with fragmented sentences and rambling thoughts. The format of the writing and language used creates convincing journal entries.
Within the story there are many moments of discrepancy between lower class and upper class, highlighted by the differences in Lilly’s versus Leslie’s house, and specifically yard. It is intentional that the yard is emphasized as a key difference between the different classed families, as the yard is an outward representation of what is inside. Semplica girls (SGs) act as an adornment to this outward representation, and stand as a symbol of wealth and status to the characters in the story.
The SGs however are a grotesque actuality of attempting to show off status or indulge in what has been set as the status quo of class. They are exploited. Within the story this exploitation is not limited to the historically wealthy families, as the narrator ends up investing in SGs himself after winning a scratch-off ticket. He defends this investment as being a nice treat, and that the lives of the SGs now is better than their origins. This is a key argument many people use in defending exploitation of immigrant workers, or exploiting people with a grim background. Activists, and Eva, seem to be the only ones to question the morality of the SGs, and Eva questions her father and goes so far as to release the SGs. The sensitivity and innocence that Eva displays cuts through the cognitive dissonance her father has, though not fully, as by the end of the story he still does not fully grasp Eva’s point of view, but he considers it.