Poverty
The theme of poverty is one of the leading I the story. As the author tells a story of her life and what influenced her, what worried her and what made her become who she is now. One of the things she hated I her life was poverty. Her family didn’t have money that’s why they were like misfits, living on the edge of society. Since her early childhood she knew that if one is poor, one cannot be like other people, the one is different, she divided people into poor and rich, white and black, happy and miserable there was no golden middle for her – either one or another option. In one of the stories she liked to tell her sisters in her childhood, Allison tells about “a laboratory in the basement of the Greenville County General Hospital”, they took the babies down there and if you're poor— “from the wrong family, the wrong color, the wrong side of town” —they mess with you, alter your brain. As we may see from this quote, the girl believed that poverty is something “wrong” is like a defect which may cause problems and no one wants it.
Family
Allison’s family was poor, “white trash” – as people call this type of family. The family was quite big – the girl, her mother and stepfather, two little sisters, uncles and aunts. Her mother was working as a waitress, her stepfather was cruel man who abused the girl, her uncles were spending most of their time in jail, and her aunts were constantly complaining about their life. It was not a very pleasant atmosphere but at least they all tried to live without scandals and fights not to make the matters worse. Allison doesn’t tell us for sure whether she loved or hated her family but the fact that it influenced her further life greatly is doubtless. The family is the micro society, the place where everything begins – our fears, passions and desires, the main her desire was to run away and become another person although she loved her mother, aunts, and sisters.
Inner struggle
Allison was in constant struggle with herself and her complexes, she was working so hard on herself that sometimes it seemed impossible for the alive creature to torture herself the way she did it: “I was so bad, people would come to watch. Inflexible, nearsighted, without talent or aptitude, falling down, sweaty and miserable—sometimes I would even pass out halfway through the class”. She always criticized herself, telling that she is nothing that everything she does is a failure that she herself was a failure but, nevertheless, she never stopped, she even tried harder. Her attitude to herself is paradoxical, so many tie it took her to start loving herself and accepting her ego that it seemed strange even for her. But she was strong, and her inner struggle made her better in all aspects, both mentally and physically.
Woman
What is a modern "woman”? What is her mission on the planet? These questions are extremely important for untangling the idea of the story. Allison was raised in a family where women had no respect and love: “"You ugly old woman," my grandfather called my grandmother. "You ugly old woman," all my uncles called all my aunts. "You ugly bitch," my cousins called their sisters, and my sisters called me. "You ugly thing!" I screamed back.” And it was normal for them to hear such words, moreover, they were agree with that, but Allison didn’t. She didn’t want to be like her mother, she wanted respect and love, because each woman is beautiful, no matter if she is physically "ugly" or not. The woman has a power, she can defend herself and she can provide herself with everything she needs. A woman doesn’t need a man, but a woman does need independence and self-assurance – that is the main point.
