What Is The Mood Of The Short Story Helen On Eighty-Sixth Street

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Vita’s Human Spirit In “Helen on Eighty-sixth Street,” by Wendi Kaufman, a young girl named Vita is facing a lot of struggles. With her dad gone, her mom dating a new guy who she strongly dislikes, and not getting the role of Helen of Troy in her school play, Vita is having a tough time. Through these conflicts, Vita shows that she can be dramatic, insecure, but, in the end, hopeful. Right off the bat, the reader is shown that Vita is quite the drama queen. She starts off the short story by saying, “I hate Helen. That’s all I can say. I hate her.” All because Helen McGuire got the school play’s leading role, Helen of Troy, instead of her. Plus even Mr. Dodd, the man in charge of the school production, called Vita a “regular Sarah Heartburn,” …show more content…

She’s upset about Helen McGuire getting the play’s star role, Helen of Troy, when she knows much more about Greek mythology than Helen does. Vita thinks Helen got the part because she is prettier than her. So when she ends up playing the part of a soldier in the Trojan horse, not even one of the Trojan women, she feels even worse. Moreover, throughout the course of the story, she brings up Helen of Troy a lot, and often asks her mom about what makes a person beautiful. For example, when Vita’s mom was trying to make her feel better by talking about Helen’s flaws. She mentions how Helen’s father was a swan and how her mother was too young to have children. Vita then asked “And what about beauty?” Her mom replied, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty--- that is all ye need to know,” which means, true beauty is not what is on the outside, it’s what is on the inside. Sadly, Vita didn’t understand this and found her mother unhelpful. Even when Vita obtains the role of Helen of Troy when Helen McGuire falls ill with the chickenpox, she still does not feel pretty enough. She asks her mom if her father would think she looked beautiful in her costume, feeling unsure of herself. As show, Vita’s insecurity is a struggle she deals with all the

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