Anne Sexton Cinderella

The Raw Uncut Version

Parents warn their children about “scary” movies being not real and made up, but they never warn children about fairy tales. Fairytales are to be hopes and desires and something every little girl should want to have when they grow up, and not unrealistic or demeaning like the real world is. In Anne Sexton poem “Cinderella” the narrator tales a tale that most people grew up on what seems to be a princess story. This story is unlike the rest. At the beginning of the poem, Cinderella’s mother dies, and her father soon remarried another woman who had two daughters that were not very nice and made Cinderella their maid. Cinderella was given a twig from her father that she grew by her mother’s grave that eventually grew into a tree where a magical wish giving dove sat. A day came where there

was a ball which was described as wedding market, and the prince was going to find a wife. Cinderella’s step mom wouldn’t let her go, so she wished that she could go, and so the dove granted it. Cinderella went to the ball and won over the prince’s heart, and left her shoe. The prince tried to find her by having women try on the shoe. The stepsister cuts her toe off so the shoe would fit. With blood gushing everywhere the prince didn’t see it and the dove brought it the prince’s attention to tell him to look down at the seeping blood from the self-inflicted wounds from the step sisters’ foot. The other step sister cuts off her heel to try and fit into the shoe. Eventually the prince found Cinderella and they lived happily ever after. Anne Sexton uses a very sarcastic tone when writing this poem and with that she demoralized false promises of happy endings. Sexton used Modernism in the poem of “Cinderella” in multiple ways because the poem is not a typical Disney princess version of Cinderella, and because of that it steps away from the norm that society is used to hearing. Instead of prompting rags to riches and glimmers of happiness Sexton mocks it, also when describing how the step sisters actually hurt themselves to fit into a shoe, and lastly, how she compares happily ever after to dolls with fake smiles; her poem gives a very modern realistic view that reality will never be a fairytale.
Money brings happiness and takes people who have nothing to becoming something, at least that’s what the media seems to be leading us to believe.

There’s never the headlines on ABC 30 of the man who won a million dollars and spent it all and is now homeless or got murdered by an ex-wife. Anne Sexton begins the poem by telling such stories, in her poem “Cinderella”, Sexton writes:

You always read about it:

the plumber with the twelve children who wins the Irish Sweepstakes.

From toilets to riches.

That story

(1-5).
Sexton uses the word “that story” to proclaim that it’s not something that the readers are unaware of to be true or that they haven’t heard before. The story that we should be hearing is what they did after that money that they won was spent. Sexton mocks this happiness of winning by poking fun at the plumber’s old life. In retrospective Sexton might have related to having money and that glimmer of happiness, but reality took over and life went back to the way it was. Money isn’t going to change the past and it will not erase who he/she once was and Sexton highlights this in her poem.
Superficial and wanting to become more desirable is something that women feel the need to do to become more attractive for finding a mate.

In this poem Anne Sexton highlight the idea of the step sisters altering their body to be good enough for the prince. In her poem she writes: “He went to their house and the two sisters, /were delighted because they had lovely feet” (79-80). Anne Sextons uses this term lovely feet to describe that the sisters were very fond of their feet and didn’t previously have a problem with their feet until seen to not be good enough for the prince. Sexton states in the poem: “but her big toe got in the way so she

simply
sliced it off and put on the slipper” (82-84). Sexton uses this as a way to show that women are willing to do anything for a man, and it’s ridiculous. Sexton symbolizes this to how things are in reality. If a man likes women to have a bigger chest than she should undergo plastic surgery to make herself more of his idea of beauty. Sexton is very realistic with this idea and is stepping out of societies comfort zone and showing a new way to perceive this harsh treatment that women go through when finding their perfect prince charming.
Happily, ever after or until death til part is what young children see in fairytales which they hope to find when they are seeking a spouse. The Disney princesses does not prepare the youth for what reality has to hold and the fact that many adults will become divorced or live in an un happy marriage. Sextons poem mocks such phony attributes by stating in her poem: “happily ever after, / like two dolls in a museum case” (101-102). She uses the example of dolls in a museum case to show how fake that the statement happily ever after is. Modernism is found in this statement because Sexton breaks away from the Disney version of Cinderella comparing dolls to forever happiness. Modernism in this poem is showing that reality isn’t like the Disney version of Cinderella and if it is, it is fake because in reality married couples don’t always live happily ever after, relationships are hard and people get tired of the person and it’s not all smiles to make a relationship last its hard work and dedication
Fairytales are a great way to escape reality, but they lead to false expectations for reality. In Sextons Cinderella piece she brings a new perspective to making fairy tales more modern and breaks away from the norm. Sexton escapes the norm by using her modernist writing perspective and does this by making fun of rag to riches stories, also by describing how the step sisters morphed their body parts to be good enough for the prince, and finally how she compares happily ever after to dolls with fake smiles. Sexton points out the harsh truths that happens in finding that fairy tale type of love.