“The New Boyfriend” by Kelly Link is a short story from her collection, Get in Trouble, that unfolds in adolescent territory. The story focuses on a teenage girl, Immy, who is jealous of her good friend, Ainslie. The setting of the story is Ainslie's birthday party, dominated by other teenage girls. The characters have become obsessed with the boys and Ainslie's birthday present, the ghost boyfriend. This story depicts the lives of teenagers and their development when it comes to love and romance. Accurately describes conversation between teenagers; desire and jealousy are evident in their conversations. Link uses images of teenage friendship to express themes of romantic love and jealousy in friendship. He also uses literary devices such as imagery and irony to allow his themes to reflect the real world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, the friendship between the four girls – Ainslie, Elin, Immy, and Sky – is dramatic. Immy envies Ainslie because Ainslie always gets everything she wants and has everything other girls don't have. Therefore, these girls always compete for Ainslie's love. At Ainslie's birthday party, her friends give her gifts to show their love. Even so, she believes there is no competition between the three girls as to who loves her more. As a matter of fact, she loves them equally, as highlighted in the lyrics: "It's not a competition. Ainslie loves Elin, Immy and Sky equally, even though Immy and Ainslie have been friends longer" (Link 134). The love between the four friends is the main theme of this story. Additionally, the story plays with conventions of vampires and romance, and is exciting when Link talks about teenage girls attempting love for the first time and trying to figure out what to do (Thomas 17). The story reflects a typical group of teenage friends. Ideally, adolescence is the time when girls experience certain things for the first time. At this stage, a teenager is likely to be curious. The conversations, competition and actions of the four girls reflect the typical dynamics of a group of teenage girls. As such, when the story brings up the theme of love, it comes out as romantic love. For example, when Immy's father asks her if she knows what love is, she does not define love as between her and her parents and friends. She describes it like this between her and a boy: "Sometimes I love my friends... but that's not the kind of love I mean. I mean love; you know guys... like the love you see in the movies and/or in books" (Link 149 ). Here, Immy describes the romantic love between a girl and a boy. He hasn't experienced it, but he's seen it in movies and read about it in books. He believes that losing romantic love can cause a person to want to end their life (Williamson 26). He clearly wants to experience romantic love for the first time because he has never experienced it and believes that romantic love is more than the love he feels for his friends and parents. Secondly, three of the girls: Elin, Immy and Sky not only love Ainslie; they are jealous of her because she always gets what she wants. For example, the conversation between the girls shows their utter jealousy towards Ainslie. When asked why Ainslie always gets what she wants and why she always gets what Immy wants, Sky replies: “They don't. You can't take them now. Not unless you're Ainslie, right?” (Link 135). This statement is not just sarcastic. He is also full of jealousy. The girls are jealous of Ainslie because she is the one who always finds the boyfriend that every girl wants and always haswhat other girls want. For example, Link says, “Immy has no idea why he's in such a horrible mood. Except wait, no. Let's be honest. She knows it. She's in a horrible mood because she's a horrible friend who wants everything that belongs to Ainslie. Except maybe Ainslie's mother. Ainslie can keep her mother” (Link 137). This quote explains how desirable Ainslie's life is to her friends, especially Immy. The story does not mention Ainslie's specific belongings that her friends want, but if they love her as their friend, they are still jealous of her and wish to have what she has. For example, Immy wants Ainslie's ghost boyfriend, but can't have him. Jealousy is a manifestation of the three girls' envy of Ainslie. They love and envy her in equal measure. Additionally, the story uses a number of literary devices to illustrate these themes. First, the use of imagery brings out the theme of romantic love between a boy and a girl (Galef 157). The story is imaginary. Boyfriends are imaginary and serve to explain ideal situations. For example, Ainslie's ghost boyfriend is desired by the other girls. Immy tells Ainslie about these boyfriends and has wanted one since ghost boyfriends were available for purchase. However, after Ainslie receives a ghost boyfriend as a birthday present, Immy begins to lust after Ainslie's boyfriend. Even so, the boyfriend is imaginary. They call them real names. Sky suggests to Ainslie: "You could call him Vincent" (Link 136). Furthermore, the description of the ghost boyfriend creates an image of a real boyfriend in the reader's mind. Ainslie describes her ghost boyfriend as having “his eyelids closed. Eyelashes like black fans. Skin just like skin. Even her nails are perfect and so real” (Link 137). This description creates an image of a real person in the reader's mind, even if the ghost boyfriend is not real. Also, the conversation between Immy and Ainslie feels real when Ainslie says she wants more absinthe. Immy says to Ainslie, “I'll go get him. If you send a guy out to get a bottle of homemade absinthe, he'll probably come back with a bottle of balm” (Link 138). Immy refers to Oliver, a fictional boyfriend, as a real person. Therefore, the use of images not only helps convey the message of a typical relationship between teenage friends, but also creates the image of love between a boy and a girl. Ideally, the relationship between a girl and her boyfriend is described as love. When the story uses imagery in the form of ghost boyfriends, the reader is likely to imagine the love bond a girl is likely to have with a boy she calls her boyfriend. The message conveyed is that of a typical conversation between teenage girls about their boyfriends. Their boyfriend-related conversations reflect the real conversations teenagers have. Finally, the irony of this story is quite evident. The girls know that boyfriends are fake, as is made clear when Elin tells Immy, "I don't understand. This boyfriend thing. They're creepy. They're fake. They're not real" (Link 140) . The reader is aware that the girls know that the boyfriends are fake, yet the girls still treat them like real boyfriends. For example, Immy talks to Ainslie's imaginary boyfriend, Oliver, as if he were a real boyfriend. When he says to her, "I wish you were happy, my love," she responds by saying, "How can I be happy if you're not?" (Link 138). This conversation feels like a conversation between a real guy and his girlfriend. Even though they know the boyfriends are "fake" and "creepy," they still text each other to talk about the boyfriends, which makes part of the story ironic. Furthermore, the girls love Ainslie as their friend and are,.