Scream
Mazie addresses her diary: “ I dug you out of my closet so I could scream at the top of my lungs without anyone hearing. Rosie doesn’t understand what it’s like to love the streets. She doesn’t see the shimmering cobblestones in the moonlight.” It is ironic for Mazie to anticipate that a gaudy scream such as the one she yearns for would not be perceived by any other party. Mazie’s ironic expectation validates that she only trusts her diary because it would not judge her no matter how much she shrieks in it through words.
The Irony of a Saint
The title “ Saint Mazie” shows Mazie as devout figure based on the orthodox connotations of the term saint. However, Mazie displays qualities which are inconsistent to sainthood. For example, Mazie exhibits sexual wildness which would not befit a saint. On 1st June 1916, she writes, “All the girls I know have a fella except for me. But why would I want just one person loving me when I can have three?” Mazie’s assertion, in the context of Christianity, would be viewed as a corroboration of immorality; hence, she would not qualify for sainthood. Nevertheless, the bums whom Mazie bestows her lifespan to would parallel her to saint, notwithstanding her personal imperfections, because she improves their lives with the devotion of a saint. Her personal faults do not obstruct her from showing humanity to the bums. Accordingly, Mazie’s sainthood is idiosyncratic depending on who is judging her.
The Irony of Mazie Scaring Men
George Flicker recalls, “Now she (Mazie) was an adult, so all the grown men were scared of her too. No men in the neighbourhood would be caught dead talking to her.” Ordinarily it would have been women being petrified by a man. The fear which Mazie induces in old men renders her as a commanding woman who rises above the conformist stereotypes which represent women as weaklings that would not guard themselves from men. Mazie thrives in avowing the authority of her femininity.
