In The Lives of Girls and Women, the main character Del Jordan grows from a curious child to a woman. At a young age she is very curious about her sexuality, but her mother warns her to be careful with her decisions. Del's curiosity leads her to make many bad decisions about men. All these bad decisions cause her to lose everything she worked so hard for: her goals, her ruined dreams. Del's first relationship with a man is Art Chamberlain, who works at the Jubilee radio station and is Fern Dogherty's boyfriend Jordan. resident. Chamberlain begins groping Del secretly in the presence of others. Del considered it a “sassy violation signal,…so authoritative, devoid of feeling” (Munro 177). Del subsequently chooses to make himself vulnerable by putting himself in positions where Chamberlain can continually violate his body. After all this, Del still allows him to take her to a secluded spot near the river, where he masturbates in front of her. Del doesn't exactly understand his actions, but the thought alone was terrifying. Mr. Chamberlain leaves Jubilee and Fern. Del is ashamed and feels violated. Del's mother uses Fern's case to warn Del against being similarly distracted by a man, and allowing it to interfere with his ambitions: "Once you make the mistake of being distracted by a man, your life will never be yours again." (193) As Del grows up, she becomes close friends with Jerry Storey, who competes with her for top honors at Jubliee High School and claims to have the highest IQ ever seen in Wawanash high school. Jerry belittles Del's intellect, characterizing it as feminine and abstract. This indifferent relationship gets weird when Del gets a little curious and ends up… middle of paper… er, realizing that she has to think about her decisions and what she gave up to be with Garnet – her identity. This is demonstrated when she says "And already I felt like myself... in the stupid pain of loss." (263) This shows that Del lost his beliefs and values ​​when he started dating Garnet. Addie noticed this too and confronted Del saying "You're crazy about a boy... you want to be the wife of a lumber yard worker..." (240) Before Del met Garnet she was a good student and as she spent her time doing what he wanted so much, his grades dropped and he lost all chances of getting a scholarship. Del has many different relationships with men but does not learn from the relationship and does not ensure that these decisions are not repeated. Del doesn't take his mother's advice to heart. In the end Del has nothing, he hasn't achieved his goals or his dreams.