Motif of poverty and suffering
In the book, ‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’ there is a motif for suffering and poverty. The family that is composed of Margarethe and her daughters Iris and Ruth have suffered mistreatment from people because they were poor. They left England because they were not able to sustain themselves there and moved to a new country only to continue to suffer lack of basic needs.
Symbolism of pumpkins, and mice and rats
The narrator sees children enacting the Cinderella story. She notices that the pumpkins are easily considered the torches and mice and rats are people. The symbolism used where people are represented as rats is coherent with the book, ‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’ whereby the narrator paints human beings are unappreciative, not loyal and unhelpful.
Allegory of children bending over a crate
In the allegory, there is a crate that has arrived from China. The children are happy to see it because they hope that therein are paint bulbs. They go through the first layer of items where they find pine bugs, then they find dung-colored bugs that do not deter them from their search at the third layer, they find broken glass which they play with. This is allegorical of how the characters in the novel go through hardships to realize a better future in the end.
Iris’s Painting
Iris imagined a painting of three girls. She imagined it as, “Put two of the girls in shadow, where they belong, and let light spill over the third. Our tulip, our Clara.” This is an allegory of the standing of Iris, Ruth and Clara. The girls in the shadows are Iris and Ruth who are poor and ugly, they do not receive any love or appreciation in the world. The other girl, Clara is relatively wealthy and is considered beautiful and she received adoration from the townsfolk.
The master as a symbol of terror
The master was a painter. Margarethe and her daughters lived with him. He was very rude towards Iris and Ruth. He constantly terrified Iris when he was painting her and she was always afraid that he would assault her sexually.
