"Little Cog-but" by Phyllis Shand Allfrey, and "Cotton Candy" by Dora Alonso are both stories directed towards young women. In "Little Cog-but, the main character being a female was a way for the author to connect towards a women more. The narrative discusses the main character Moira's feelings and thoughts on doing a particular act. Moira refuses to cut her hair for Christmas like everybody else, and her husband doesn't understand why not, because he sees it as a form of patriotism. Her English background derives her feelings towards the act and engaging with the plantation workers as anything more than as a slave. However, by the end of the story she creates a Christmas tree fairy, and is hesitant to give it to a young black boy named Cog-but, and at the end it states "hands (as she now saw, being close to him at last) that would never grow larger or stronger" (Allfrey 11). Moira realizes that she thought so negatively of this little black boy when indeed he's disabled and does have feelings and is human. In "Cotton Candy", the impression that the author has aimed at this narrative towards young women, is given with the main character being a young girl once again. This young girl is named Lola, and the narrative explains her journey from innocence to loss of innocence. The narrative takes place in Cuba, and during the event of the Cuban Revolution. Lola's mother continuously makes decisions for her, for certain things aren't allowed to do under the law, because the island was going under a very strong communist government. The main ideology her mother teaches her is to always keep her composure, and how sexual desires are horrid things to feel. Eventually, she develops sexual desires for different men, and growing up with always being told that these desires are bad, she feels guilty. As the narrative goes on, she loses her innocence and becomes intrigued by a prostitute. She becomes attracted to the prostitute because they're willing to open Lola's mind and tell her that having sexual desires isn't bad. At the end of the story, it states "The season of love transformed the intimate hours of the spinster" (Alonso 17). Lola is an old woman, who realizes that having and acting on sexual desires isn't bad, but normal and humane. Both narratives are aimed towards the same crowd, although the way that the main character and mothers in each one are different. Phyllis Shand Allfrey was born and raised in Dominica, and Dora Alsonso was a Cuban journalist who writes mostly children's literature. "Cotton Candy" taken place in Cuba, and "Little Cog-but" taking place in Dominica, have a role as well because the morals practiced in society are different.
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