The poem “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton was first introduced to me by my friend. The poem is what you expect, such as Cinderella serving her two stepsisters and her stepmother. Only to have her fairy god mother come to her and send her to the ball where she meets her prince. And in the end, as expected, she marries her prince charming and lives happily ever after. But Anne Sexton writes it in such a way that it seems she’s mocking the whole story. Her last words at the end of the story are “that story”. It’s very sarcastic and yet nonchalant. A very interesting way to refer to a fairytale. I like this way of storytelling. Making fun of a happily ever after story implying that it cannot really happen. A different approach in seeing the harsh reality of something that little kids believe in so much. Of course this is how I see this poem.
In the beginning of the poem she refers to different lifestyles of people, also ending each one in “that story”. Indicating that the story of Cinderella is just like those. For example:
“You always read about it:
the plumber with the twelve children
who wins the Irish Sweepstakes.
From toilets to riches.
That story.”
- Anne Sexton
Nothing but a story you hear on the streets it seems like. Her poem also has little twist of humor in it such as the two sisters disfiguring their feet to fit into the glass slipper and having their eyes being pecked out by a bird. It’s never a happily ever after unless that happenings.
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