Essay Questions

Explain the use of allusion in the book ‘ Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’.

In the book, there is use of literary allusion to build the story. The story is the Cinderella story told from the perspective of one of the ‘ugly’ stepsisters. In the book, Clara who is from a working class family and very beautiful is Cinderella whereas Ruth and Clara are the ugly stepsisters. Ironically, Iris and Ruth get the happy ending in the book whereas Clara gets the unhappy ending. Clara dies and on the other hand Iris gets married to Caspar, the love of her life. The narrator alluded to the story of Cinderella to build the plot of the book.

In addition to the use of the Cinderella story, the narrator also alluded to the story of Iris, the Greek goddess. The master painter says, “Iris, the love of those old pagan stories has swept up every patron and painter alike. The Florentines are as likely to show us Io being turned into a cow, Daphne into a laurel tree, Zeus disguised as a bull out to rape Europa as they are to show us Madonna and Christ, Saint John and Saint Nicholas.” In this allusion, the artist aims to compare Iris the Greek goddess to Iris who was his muse.

How does the author portray people in the book ‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’?

In the book, people are painted as very vindictive, unempathetic and unkind. The characters that exemplify these qualities are Margarethe, the townsfolk and the artist. They mistreated Iris and Ruth throughout the book. It is ironic that Margarethe was unkind to her children. She constantly pointed out their weaknesses and did not encourage them in their talents. When they got to the new town, Margarethe put her children in a very dangerous situation they moved in with an artist who was very unkind and verbally abusive towards the two sisters.

The townsfolk are portrayed as very unkind. When Ruth and Iris got to the market, they were obviously famished. No one at the marketplace moved to help them by offering them something to eat or a place to rest. This is ironic because the vendors had an abundance of food to eat and sell.

Describe the character of Margarethe as a mother and as an employee.

Margarethe is the mother to Iris and Ruth. She is portrayed as a very bad mother. On the other hand, she is portrayed as a very good employee. Her parenting style is very negative and it led to her children eventually developing trauma. Margarethe put her daughters in a very dangerous situation by staying at the artist’s house. Iris told her mother that she did not feel safe with the man but Margarethe did not listen to her.

Iris and Ruth have low self-esteem because of their childhood trauma. Their parent who was supposed to make life easy for them made it very difficult for them. Margarethe wished that she had sons instead of daughters because she perceived them to be very helpful towards them.