Twins

Clothing symbolizes Maureen and Fran’s individuality and desire to distinguish themselves from one another. Fran exhibits this desire first when she begins middle school with a new retro wardrobe, hoping that this will allow her peers and teachers to tell the difference between her and Maureen. Ironically, this doesn’t work at first because nobody has any way of knowing which twin has adopted a new look over the summer. On their first day, people still mistakenly refer to Fran as “Maureen.” Still, Fran’s unique clothing sends a clear message that Maureen and Francine are not the same person, and that there are significant differences between the two girls. Later, Maureen also works to distinguish herself from Fran, and she wears her Cadet Corps uniform to visually accomplish this. Even though the uniform is meant to make the members of Cadet Corps look similar to each other, the uniform also succeeds at distinguishing Maureen from Fran, because everyone knows that Maureen is in Cadet Corps and Fran isn’t. The uniform illustrates the fact that individuality is a complex concept, for the same thing that makes Maureen an “individual” compared to her sister makes her part of a unified group when she’s in Cadet Corps class.