Missy, the daughter of Drusilla did not really have any self-confidence in herself. "She would begin by wondering what she really looked like. The house owned only one mirror, in the bathroom, and it was forbidden to stand and gaze at one's reflection. Thus Missy's impressions of herself were hedged with guilt that she might have stayed too long gazing. Oh, she knew she was quite tall, she knew she was far too thin, she knew her hair was straight and dark, that her eyes were black-brown, and her nose sadly out of kilter due to a fall as a child. She knew her mouth drooped down at its left corner and twisted up at its right, but she didn't know how this made her rare smiles fascinating and her normal solemn expression a clown like tragicomedy"(Pg.35-36). Missy didn't really pay close attention to what she really looked liked. It didn't matter how women appeared in those days as how it does today. They seem to think that it's evil to look at oneself in the mirror, and that it's forbidden for a woman to look at her own image. "Life had taught her to think o

Missy felt that she was in-slaved by her mother and her aunts. Her mother made her do all the chores even when she was so sick that she couldn't move out of bed. When she got so sick and fainted, her mother and aunt were worrying about who was going to do the chores. She was like Cinderella who was left behind to clean and do everything. Even when she left the house to go get something, she always thought about milking the cows and that she had to hurry back before her mother would get mad at her. She had such a big responsibility that she didn't have any time for anyone, not even for her self to enjoy. "Oh let it not be brown! Prayed Missy. I want a scarlet dress! A lace dress in the sort of red that makes your eyes swim when you look t its that's what I want!"...brown," Drusilla finished at last, and sighed"(Pg.51). She wanted a brown dress out of all the colors she had to pick from. She always felt that she matched brown best aside from other colors. The color brown which made her figure even more darken, is the color that she liked best. "I understand how disappointing this must be, but the truth of the matter is, Missy, that no other colour becomes your half so well as brown! In pastels you look sick, in black you look jaundiced, in navy you are at death's door, and the autumn tones turn you into a Red Indian"(Pg.51). Even her own mother did not have any confidence in her. She suggests that she wears a brown dress because it matches her best. She became very upset that her mother thought that brown was the only color she liked. She really liked the pastel dress a lot and was overjoyed. "Brown; what an ugly color"(pg. 66). She hated the color brown, but she wears it the most. Missy, like a shadow who was never noticed is beginning to come out of the dark. Missy also has a serious heart problem. From time to time she would faint and not even know that she fainted. Her mother didn't really pay much attention to Missy, and her illness.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1329
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)