You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life story
While her husband is away, Julie Barton is attacked in her home by an intruder. She doesn't get a good look at him, but manages to fight him off. In the process of fighting she rips one of the intruder's leather gloves. Julie is terrified. When she goes to identify the intruder in a police line up she wears a pair of dark sunglasses. She identifies one of the men and her husband Tom attacks him. Unfortunately Tom breaks his own leg. Later, as Tom is preparing to go to the doctor's, Julie notices a ripped leather glove in his possession. Tom reveals that pressure from work has caused him to have a breakdown. He admits that he snapped and was the man that attacked her. Julie goes to the police and tells them they got the wrong man. Directed by: Norman Lloyd. Story by: Stanley Ellin, Helen Nielsen.
13 total · 6 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with post-traumatic stress | major | Julie was traumatized after being assaulted by a home invader, who the view is led to believe was almost certainly not her own husband. |
| growing as a person | major | The title is a reference to the idea featured that Julie was extolled to "get a hold" of herself and act as a grown up in identifying her assailant. |
| husband and wife | major | The story built up to the revelation that Julie's attacker was none other than her seemingly loving husband, Tom. |
| law enforcement | major | The police were investigating a home invasion. |
| social responsibility | major | Julie was urged by a police investigator, and later her physician, to make an effort to identify her attacker for the good of the community. |
| violent crime | major | The police were after the home intruder who'd attacked Julia. |
| compassion vs. self-preservation | minor | Julie had various excuses for why she did not want to cooperate. One was that she feared retribution if she should get her unknown assailant arrested. |
| coping with stress at work | minor | Tom excused having attack on his wife by saying that he'd been stressed at work. |
| domestic violence | minor | Tom assaulted his wife, Julia. |
| father and daughter | minor | Julie's father dropped by to check up on her. |