19 February 2015
That Story…
Eugene O’Neill once said, “Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door …” (O’Neill). The idea that many people become deeply fixated on finding a miracle or encountering some kind of “magic fix” in their lives is instilled in them by the fairy tales they often hear in childhood. In Anne Sexton’s satirical poem, “Cinderella,” the speaker gives an ironically accurate spin to a beloved fairytale. The speaker’s voice throughout the poem comments on all the things that make “Cinderella” unrealistic. The speaker mocks such stories and what they universally promote: the lie that anyone can be rescued from poverty through purity and luck. With this poem, the narrator forces the reader to take a closer look at how preposterous this lie is by regaling us with the most unbelievable fairytale of them all, the myth of “Cinderella.”
Sexton recounts examples of this belief in the first four stanzas by introducing a different belief: that these stories are not to be taken seriously. The structure of the poem starts off with some related stories that the speaker quickly skims through: a plumber who wins the sweepstakes; “From toilets to riches” (4); a maid who marries a wealthy son, “From diapers to Dior.” (9); the milkman who happens to be a success in real estate, “From homogenized to martinis at lunch.” (16); and the cleaning lady who collects the insurance money from her bus accident, “From mops to Bonwit Teller.” (20). Sexton expects her audience to identify with these particular stories (or stories like them) that all have the same general theme of a typical rags-to-riches story. At the end of each individual story, the speaker’s sarcastic tone shines through the repetition of the line “That story” (5)(10)(21) as if to scorn the general premise that anyone can go from poverty to wealth or fame almost instantly coupled with a lot of luck. With this theme in mind, the reader is then directed to the...