The Girlchild Analysis

In the third stanza, we see that the girlchild is growing up. Not only has she been told how to look her whole life now it is being voiced how to behave. The speaker does not express who is giving her this guidance, so we can only assume it is either he family, classmates or other adults, maybe even strangers. “She was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (line 12, 12 and 14). In other terms, it is interpreted as, to be shy, maybe she tries to be invisible because then the classmates will not notice her nose. She was told to diet and exercise; to try and purge herself of those fat thighs. She was also told to “smile and wheedle.” Perhaps this means she was told to use her charms and to coax people into liking her for her personality and maybe they will not notice how she was given the short end of the stick when it came to her looks. …show more content…
She may be gifted and brilliant but all of the counsel she is given is more or less for nothing, since the classmates still focus on her flaws. The girlchild is still supposed to smile even if she is dejected because that is what young girls are trained to do. The cookie cutter mold that young girls are brainwashed to fit into only makes the rest of society lose track of who they are. Then you notice that gradually the girlchild is losing the fight “her good nature wore out / like a fan belt” the girlchild tries over and over again for people to appreciate her and she is sick of