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The narrator regularly makes a joke that Beatrice "looked strikingly like an Indian brave. But whoever said so was under an obligation to add quickly that she was, all the same, quite beautiful" (154). How does this joke function? What is its significance in the work as a whole?
This joke will likely be jarring to most 21st-century readers, though some may not have an issue with it. The joke suggests that Beatrice does not look very ladylike, but the punchline ultimately deals with social graces rather than the ugliness of Native Americans. However, it treats the ugliness of Native Americans and white expressions of femininity as the truest expression of femininity....
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