Isolation and Independence in "Hairball"

In the short story “Hairball,” the main character Katherine slowly progresses from her true self to a creation of herself; these transitions are represented through her many name changes.  When Katherine is a child, she calls herself by her full name, which symbolizes herself at her most true form: she is not changed by society or altered yet.  However, as she grows up, she starts to change and in turn changes her name to Kathy.  This transition represents herself changing already, even though she is only a young teenager.  She has stopped her mother from dressing her up in frilly clothes and is finally thinking for herself.  This makes Kathy the newly changed Katherine.  Soon enough, she changes her name again to Kath when she moves to University.  Not only is Kath no longer letting her mother boss her around by dressing her up, but she will not let anyone be the boss of her and is now aggressively independent.  She furthered her independence when she changed her name to Kat and moved to England by herself.

This series of name changes could mean a number of things.  She is slowly gaining her independence with each transition and could be representing herself growing up, but it could also symbolize her moral corruption as she grows older.  When she is younger, she is pure and has not had the harshness of the world shown to her yet, therefore she cannot be corrupt.  She is a naïve child who believes in the good of humanity, but when she turns older she realizes that society does not truly have the best intentions, so she shields herself away by trying to prove her independence.  First she pushed her mother away by making her own outfit decisions, then she pushed her friends away by taking “no-bullshit” and finally she pushed the every other person in her life away through her move to England.  Some may call these changes in her life a part of growing up, but it is actually a way to isolate herself from those who love her.

In an effort to feel closer to her love interest, Kat changes Gerald’s name.  This way he can be a creation of Kat, just as she is a creation of herself.  She shortens his name to “Ger” which is three letters long, as her name is.  The reason for the same amount of letters in both of their names is an effort of Kat to have a bond with him that Ger’s wife does not have.  Ger’s wife is described to have all of the qualities that Kat does not have, so having the same amount of letters in Ger’s and Kat’s names is an effort to win Ger over through the similarities that they share--forged or not.  What she soon realizes, though, is that Ger does not actually have true feelings for Kat, so she begins to call him Gerald again out of an act of defiance.  She thinks of “Ger” as one of her creations who she is romantically involved and of “Gerald” as a married man.  The only time Kat says Ger’s full name is when she is demeaning him, since the full name is “a negation of him, an abolishment of him, like ripping a medal off his chest” (3).  Once she changes his name back, he is no longer the man she created.