Analysis Of The Poem Cinderella

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Although the feelings towards women’s rights were rapidly changing during the late twentieth century, not many women were able to have an opportunity to participate in the workplace. Olga Broumas’ “Cinderella” uses the contrast between a women’s want of a perfect fairytale ending and the struggle to make their own way in society to get across the underlying meaning of the women’s movement. Throughout the poem Broumas uses examples of how the women of that day were often shunned from these types of chances because they weren’t pretty, smart, or clever enough to fit a part that was deemed a “mans work”. The real significance of the poem is that on the surface, it’s building on the “Cinderella” story but really, it’s working in a figurative way …show more content…
This meaning becomes visible when the year 1977 is considered. Within this time period, it was widely understood that the customary role of women was to work solely on the home raising children, making dinners, and stitching tattered clothes. This duty was to be respected and not challenged especially by attempting to go into the workforce. But still there was a small door of opportunity for women that can be seen in the statement of the poem, “I am the one allowed in/ to the royal chambers, whose small foot conveniently fills the slipper of glass”. These verses signify how that there were a few chances but they were not easy to fill, especially in reference to the “glass slipper” for the fact that the opportunity was not normally available and could easily shatter and be gone in a second. And if a women was given a chance she was often shamed for not measuring up to the “man’s role” that was customary in these types of workplaces. Then the poem goes on to say “A woman co-opted by promises: the lure/of a job, the ruse of a choice” which implies that this opportunity that the writer was referring to must have been sugar coated, making all the women long to gain that position. When considering these examples it leads me to believe that the underlying meaning was truly cry for the women’s rights and the positions in the “castle” that they were not granted entrance into at that point in history. In conclusion, the poem “Cinderella” is not only a reminder to women of the classic fairytale and how it relates to today, but also a remembrance of how far the feminine movement has come over the years. For the most part women no longer have the jobs being banned from them solely based on their gender. There is truly a happy ending that can be found even if we need to work for the final

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