Answer and Explanation:
Among the many themes that can be found in the short story "Raymond's Run", by Toni Cade Bambara, there is the theme of female friendship. The main character is a determined girl named Hazel. She seems to know quite well who she is and what she wants in life. That makes her more upfront, more straightforward in her relationships with others. Hazel does not feel the need to hide who she is. However, she does not sense the same in other girls. She thinks girls are not taught to be true to themselves. They are also not taught to be nice to others:
Gretchen smiles, but it’s not a smile, and I’m thinking that girls never really smile at each other because they don’t know how and don’t want to know how and there’s probably no one to teach us how, cause grown-up girls don’t know either.
In the end of the story, Hazel and Gretchen compete against each other in a race. This is the first time they actually see and respect each other. Hazel realizes it is possible for girls to let their walls down:
And she nods to congratulate me and then she smiles. And I smile. We stand there with this big smile of respect between us. It’s about as real a smile as girls can do for each other, considering we don’t practice real smiling every day, you know, cause maybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.