How to Triumph Like a Girl Essay Questions

Why does Limón choose the heart as the body part to focus on? Why not the horses' feet, or eyes, or lungs?

The heart has a double meaning in literature: it is at once the mechanical pump keeping the body running, and what we consider as the site of human emotion. The former is significant for the type of raw strength, perseverance, and confidence that fill this poem. The latter is significant because Limón is a poet: it is not by physical prowess or endurance that her art is made, but by her keen ability to perceive the currents of human emotion. By the end of the poem, the speaker seems absolutely sure that nothing can stop her, but this certainty is fueled in large part by the strength of her emotions. A poem focused on horses' feet, for instance, would lose its "heart"—literally and figuratively—and be a more one-dimensional tribute to physical domination. That is not "How to Triumph Like a Girl."

What does the poet mean with the line "Don't you want to believe it?" Why address the audience in this way?

With this line, the speaker explicitly invites the reader into her vision of feminist power. The question is phrased in a leading way, already tipping us in the direction that she intends, encouraging us to consider how feminist empowerment is desirable for all. Despite the brash "swagger" of the poem, this line seems to acknowledge that feminist power only exists insofar as we believe in it, and requires a communal—not individual—act of belief. It moves the reader from a passive recipient of the poem's call to action to a supporter or even co-creator of the empowerment it envisions.