You Grow This Way: An Analysis of Mother and Daughter Selves in Anne Sexton’s Poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman

Authors

Kennerley Roper, Brigham Young UniversityFollow

Keywords

Anne Sexton, feminist psychoanalysis

Abstract

The maternal speaker in Anne Sexton's poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman” speaks to her maturing daughter about the wonders of the female body by revising the literary tradition that already exists about the female body. What the speaker ultimately conveys to her daughter is the power the body has through the use of parallel body and earth imagery. However, the daughter is distanced from this notion through a contrasting image: the string bean. The speaker uses that distance to show the mixed images of entanglement and separation of mother and daughter in order to expound wisdom to a daughter approaching her own womanhood.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Roper, Kennerley, "You Grow This Way: An Analysis of Mother and Daughter Selves in Anne Sexton’s Poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman" (2015). Student Works. 133.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub/133

Document Type

Class Project or Paper

Publication Date

2015-03-11

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/3343

College

Humanities

Department

English

University Standing at Time of Publication

Junior

Course

English 337R