The Little Girl

discovering one’s sexuality can bring about many emotions and questions. Sexuality can be an extremely confusing and frightening time for many young girls. Esperanza experiences a variety of new emotions and experiences new things because of her growing sexuality. In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza is a young girl facing many new challenges in her life including her developing sexuality. Symbolism is used in the text. Sandra Cisneros’s use of symbolism in…

A recent study from the American Journal of Child Nursing showed that self-esteem in girls significantly decreases at age 12 and does not improve until the age of twenty, thanks to a growing hatred of their bodies during their teenage years. This is largely thanks to western society as a whole, and their very narrow-minded ideals of what makes a girl beautiful. During the teenage years, when girls are changing and developing at different rates, society often begins to criticize them harshly…

barbies in the story “Barbie-Q” the little girls play with portray the oppression of one culture by the dominant culture. When they play with the dolls, one of the girls tells the other one, “Yours is the one with the mean eyes and ponytail” (Cisneros 14). With this observation, the little girl shows that she has had…

Morski’s acrylic painting, Ladies. The image of a little girl with toys strewn about while being surrounded by a cage resembling the figure of a grown woman provokes thought regarding the hidden meanings behind this painting. The painting presents one such hidden meaning by using the cage around the little girl. By the cage being put around the little girl, the pressure that society puts on females to become or grow up in a particular way is represented. Girls are forced to grow into the…

Picture a girl heading out onto the field. She are about to try out for her school’s soccer team. She have everything she needs: the gear, the attitude, and the skills. She’s been training endlessly for months. As she approaches the field, there is a surprising amount of boys and little to no girls. She asks the boy’s coach where everyone is, and he replies “Didn’t you hear? My boys needed new jerseys and soccer balls. We had to dip into the girl’s funding, the team is cut. Better luck…

After reading Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll, the girl in the story had killed herself because she felt that others saw her as ugly. Upon further reading, the poem shows that there is more meaning behind it. The poem is not just about a young woman who takes her life for not being perfect. Piercy uses literary techniques and figurative language that describes a society for women. The writing style in this poem includes long, descriptive lines. Having the long lines with the descriptions helps to…

In the video a satanic p!nk sits on her right shoulder and on her left shoulder sits an angel. The satanic p!nk wants the girl to follow the traditional gender roles while the p!nk angel wants her to be courageous and ambitious. This whole music video portrays female empowerment and supports it by using the metaphor of the angel and devil. She has a great influence for women…

In the story “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, the feuding of the two girls is a crucial part of the story. The narrator's thoughts about the other little girl reflect the ongoing feud between their mothers. In the story, but upon seeing the child of the woman at the registration's curls drooping, the narrator is happy. She seems to be proud that her own hair is "twisted into an uncommon sturdiness". This seems to also imply that she thinks her mother is better than the other girl's mother…

1650 TX-351 in Abilene Texas. I went on October 26th, at 2:30 in the afternoon. Right when I walked into the toy section I saw the pink glow of toys to my left and then the dull dark blue to my right. It was very obvious which isles were attended for girls and which isles were attended for boys. This was the case for all of the isles except for the infant toy aisle. The infant toy aisle was very gender neutral in the aspect that all of the toys and packages were covered in vibrant bright colors,…

Pure white things with silver wings embroidered into the ankles. I loved them; I thought the little wings taught me how to fly; I thought that those wings, as white and pure as fresh ice, had set me free. I wore them for years, and won medals with them for years, and every single one of those medals felt as cold and heavy and unforgiving as the…