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194 Unit 2 ■ Analyzing Comparisons and Representations

In the last stanzas, the tone shifts from jovial to judgmental as the topic sentence: loss
young girl enters the confines of her home and is questioned by her of freedom signified by
mother, representing the societal norms of being well-behaved girls and tone shift from playful
women have to follow. As she walks into the house, her carefree nature to reserved
already dissipates. As she notices the “clean linoleum,” she “smoothed
her skirt”: a gesture that contrasts with the dirty and playful tone from
outside, instead shifting into a stricter environment inside. In this new
environment, she adjusts accordingly to please others by fixing her
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
evidence: details and
clothing. She leaves behind the windblown hair and rumpled clothing
that represent her freedom outside to look better adjusted for her mother word choice illustrate
the loss of freedom
and others. She is berated by her mother with questions about her time experienced within the
outside. Her mother represents the judgment and questioning women rules of society
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often get by others when acting against the societal norms of a perfect,
well- mannered lady. The little girl is carefree and playful, just like a child
should be, but in this new environment she is more reserved and
obedient to please and conform to those standards of women even as a
child. When her mother asks about what is in her pocket she answers
obediently that it is her knife and notices how it “weighted [her] pocket
and stretched [her] dress awry.” This object associated with her brother
and the playful rambunctious nature of boys, the knife, is weighing on
her as she tries her hardest to conform to the perfect little girl her mother
expects and wants. The knife also messes up her dress, showing how
this object that represents her freedom from outside is messing with the
mask she is putting on with orderly clothing and hair. It instead rumples
her dress and depicts her true nature as a playful child, but her mother’s
judging eyes do not accept that, so the little girl conforms to the
well-mannered stereotype that society wants her to be, instead of being
her true self. The tone shift contrasts the freedom she feels playing out-
side as a horse with her mother’s questioning and judgment.
In Swenson’s poem “The Centaur,” the speaker depicts the societal
pressures placed on girls to be obedient and well-mannered. She uses conclusion: articulates
the desire for freedom
metaphors and similes to create a tonal shift from the carefree indepen- from societal pressures
dence of a child playing outside alone to the constraints and judgments
of social expectations.

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194 Unit 2 Analyzing Comparisons and Representations

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