"Again Catherine excused herself; and at last he walked off to quiz his sisters by himself. The rest of the evening she found very dull; Mr. Tilney, though belonging to it; did not sit near her, and James and Isabella were so much engaged in conversing together, the the latter had no leisure to bestow more on her friend than one smile, on squeeze, and one 'dearest Catherine.'" (Austin. 37-38)
I choose this paragraph because I feel this is a turning point in the story. Catherine, as a teenage girl who attempt the social life for the first time, she starts with knowing no one at the Bath, and fills up anxiety and self-consciousness, but fortunately she gets some new friends. They are the Thorpe sisters. Catherine is fond of them so much, specially Isabella. Also she meets the first young man she has ever interested in her life, Mr. Tilney. However, in this paragraph, we can see that Catherine is abandon by her new friends. When I am reading this, I has the feeling that the Thorpe sisters are not as amiable as they seems. They are likely to take advantage of Catherine instead of being real friends with her. I guess in the following chapters that Catherine might suffer from the social life after tasting all the sweetness of social activities. Catherine's situation is quite common among teenagers, which kinds of remind me the movie Mean Girls. Cady also starts with being plain and innocent like Catherine. When she gets into a "real" school for the first time instead of homeschool, she is nervous and lonely. Then when she meets the plastics and being invited to join them, she has the taste of the excitement about socializing with others. However, their friendship is not pure, the plastics just need another compliant pretty girl in their crew. And in the end she realize what true friendship should be.
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