mirror
...rgettable event in a person’s life, just like a trip to Europe would be for her. When she comes home from this trip and looks in the mirror, an Alp will be what she remembers the most and that is what she will see in the mirror, just as if she has sex with Constantin he would be what she most remembers and he is what she would see. At this point Esther is on a date with Constantin, which has led to his house. She has been pondering of seducing him and then loosing her virginity to him. The mirror in this situation is used as a reminder of what would happen if she would have sex with this man. When Esther looks into a mirror she is looking more than skin deep. If she were to have sex with this man she would see him in herself when she looked at her reflection. 4. “I fumbled in my pocketbook for the compact with the mascara and the mascara brush and the eye shadow and the three lipsticks and the side mirror. The face that peered back at me seemed to be peering from the grating of a prison cell after a prolonged beating. It looked bruised and puffy and all the wrong colors. It was a face that needed soap and Christian tolerance.” (page 102, paragraph 5) Esther rummages through her purse and looks into the mirror she pulls out. Her face looks bruised and beaten. Esther and all the other girls in this program are having their pictures taken by a professional photographer for a magazine article. Esther begins to cry during her photo shoot and cannot seem to stop. The mirror is used to reveal the truth and how Esther is feeling. Esther continually confronts reflections of herself, reflections she often fails to recognize. Esther increasingly struggles to keep the outward self she presents to the world united with the inner self that she experiences. This is an example of how she doesn’t understand herself; she doesn’t even know why she is crying. 5. “The face in the mirror looked like an Indian” (page 112, paragraph one) Esther looks like an Indian because of the two blood streaks on her cheeks. This is the day after Esther was attacked by Marco and the night she throws all her clothes off the top of a building. She is now on a train to go home. The mirror she looks into is used to depict a view that Esther has of herself. She is at war with herself and this makes her think of Indians and the paint they were on their faces when they go to battle. 6. “At first I didn’t see what the trouble was. It wasn’t a mirror at all but a picture. You couldn’t tell whether the person in the picture was a man or woman, because their hair was shaved off and spouted in bristly chicken-feather tufts all over their head. One side of the person’s face was purple and bulged out in a shapeless way, shading to green along the edges, and then to a sallow yellow. The person’s mouth was pale brown, with a rose-color sore at either corner. The most startling thing about the face was its supernatural conglomeration of bright colors. I smiled. The mouth in the mirror cracked into a grin.” (page 174-175, paragraph four to six) Esther looks into a mirror but does not recognize herself, she cannot even determine if the person she is looking at is a man or woman. Only when she smiles and sees the person in the mirror smile does she understand she is looking at her reflection. George Blackwell has just come to visit Esther in the mental hospital. She is also in the middle of undergoing the shock treatments. She is now getting ready to be transported to the asylum in the city. The mirror is used to portray the great lack of understanding Esther has for herself. The fact that she cannot recognize her own reflection redefines the struggle she has to understand herself. The mirror is also symbolizing the pain and suffering Esther is undergoing throughout this period of her life. 7. “I moved in front of the medicine cabinet. If I looked in the mirror while I did it, it would be like watchi...