A Reflection on Life
Wendy Rose in “Julia” tells a story through the eyes of Julia Pastrana, a Mexican-Indian woman whose husband used her as an exhibit due to the thick hair covering her entire body, and her many deformities. The poem can be read in context with Julia's life, yet can be read in context with other situations as well. Regardless, Julia is slowly coming to terms with the harsh reality she lived in, and is both reflecting on and recovering from the cruel treatment of her husband.
A prime example of this claim is set in the first lines of the poem. Julia says “Tell me it was a dream / my husband, a clever trick / made by some tin-faced villiage god / or ghost-coyote pretending / to frighten me with his claim / that our …show more content…
Julia says, “...To see myself reflected / as the burnished bronze woman / skin smooth and tender / I know myself to be… / and I was there in the mirror / and I was not” (Rose 25-33). In this reflection, it is obvious that she is referring to the woman she feels she truly is, someone no one else sees due to her deformities and surplus of hair. This is further reiterated when she explains, “I had become hard / as the temple stones / of O’tomi, hair grown over my ancient face / like black moss, gray as jungle fog” (Rose 34-7). These words show exactly how much stress and sadness Julia experienced in her life; it is almost said in contrast of the latter reflection. Clearly, she views herself as a normal human being, so much so that she actually expects to see a clear skinned woman looking back at her from the mirror. It is very likely she isolated herself due to never being taken seriously as a human being, building a wall to block the constant …show more content…
With an apparent sadness she says, “Oh such a small room! / no bigger than my elbows outstretched / and just as tall as my head. / A small room from which to sing / open the doors / with my cold graceful mouth, / my rigid lips, my silences / dead as yesterday, / cruel as the children / and cold as the coins / that glitter / in your pink fist” (Rose 44-55). This shows that even after death, her husband is still ruining what little she had by taking away her ability to sing, by restricting her to a tiny room, as well as making her mouth cold and rigid. Through this, she also expresses her resentment toward her husband for using her to make money, even in
Wendy Rose in “Julia” tells a story through the eyes of Julia Pastrana, a Mexican-Indian woman whose husband used her as an exhibit due to the thick hair covering her entire body, and her many deformities. The poem can be read in context with Julia's life, yet can be read in context with other situations as well. Regardless, Julia is slowly coming to terms with the harsh reality she lived in, and is both reflecting on and recovering from the cruel treatment of her husband.
A prime example of this claim is set in the first lines of the poem. Julia says “Tell me it was a dream / my husband, a clever trick / made by some tin-faced villiage god / or ghost-coyote pretending / to frighten me with his claim / that our …show more content…
Julia says, “...To see myself reflected / as the burnished bronze woman / skin smooth and tender / I know myself to be… / and I was there in the mirror / and I was not” (Rose 25-33). In this reflection, it is obvious that she is referring to the woman she feels she truly is, someone no one else sees due to her deformities and surplus of hair. This is further reiterated when she explains, “I had become hard / as the temple stones / of O’tomi, hair grown over my ancient face / like black moss, gray as jungle fog” (Rose 34-7). These words show exactly how much stress and sadness Julia experienced in her life; it is almost said in contrast of the latter reflection. Clearly, she views herself as a normal human being, so much so that she actually expects to see a clear skinned woman looking back at her from the mirror. It is very likely she isolated herself due to never being taken seriously as a human being, building a wall to block the constant …show more content…
With an apparent sadness she says, “Oh such a small room! / no bigger than my elbows outstretched / and just as tall as my head. / A small room from which to sing / open the doors / with my cold graceful mouth, / my rigid lips, my silences / dead as yesterday, / cruel as the children / and cold as the coins / that glitter / in your pink fist” (Rose 44-55). This shows that even after death, her husband is still ruining what little she had by taking away her ability to sing, by restricting her to a tiny room, as well as making her mouth cold and rigid. Through this, she also expresses her resentment toward her husband for using her to make money, even in