He Said, She Said

Yesterday in English class, Ms. Serensky said that after reading John's where he referred to her as "she," she felt "weirded out."  It seemed to her (sorry for doing it again, Ms. Serensky) that by using condescending diction, such as "her," he created a tone of animosity.  This starkly contrasted with Gogol in The Namesake, becasue when he read a book in which "the main characters were simply referred to, for hundreds of pages, as He and She," he envied them (245).  I personally agree with Ms. Serenksy because when I overhear my parents talking about my brother and me, and they refer to us as "he" and "she," I become increasingly frustrated.  Although I should take this as a sign of love-they do it because we are the loves of their lives-I dislike the fact that the degrade us to simple pronouns that could be ambiguous or used for anyone.  This realization caused me to have a lot of sympathy for Gogol, which I definitely lacked, especially toward the beginning of the book.  I felt that if he desired to be called "he," and was jealous of those who were, he must not have that innate connection to his name that I just recently found.  I am not even particularly fond of the name Elizabeth, but I would take it any day over the pronoun "she."