Alice Major's "Puce Fairy Book" is a satire. The title hints that the fairy book or story being told is somewhat majestic. Puce is a shade of purple and purple represents royalty. Thus the title represents something that is almost magical and very unlikely to attain. The poem itself raises the issue's of image. Society has an idea of the perfect girl and the poem suggests that the expectations are unreal. Society has to realize that perfection does not exist. The fairy tale girls from these stories are part of a perfect make belief world, they do not really exist. Major uses a variety of fairy tale beauties to get her point across. Men expect women to be that kind of fairy tale girl but in reality they are not. The line that best expresses this belief is "my foot was too big to fit into it."(Major 36) The girl admits her imperfections and she is comfortable with them. However, the boy she is with insists upon making her into something that she is never going to be.
The main character is the girl that the boy is trying so desperately to change but she never ends up changing. Instead she openly confesses all of her imperfections and lets him know that is all that she can be. Either he likes it or he decides not to. He cannot keep on trying to change her. The girl is realistic, she has flaws, and she does not try to hide this. The boy on the other hand tries desperately to pretend that they are both part of the fairy tales, to hide their flaws. The girl takes on the role of reality. The boy takes on the role of a phony. When it really comes down to it reality is always going to remain dominant because it is the only thing that exists. Therefore the girl is the only one telling the story because the boy no longer remains a part of her life.
The poem is set in no specific time or place other than a time when society has their perfect image of a girl. There is a predominant atmosphere that suggests disappointment from both the girl and the boy.
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