Professor Churchill
English 68 TTH-9:45-11:50
27 April 2018
Sculpted by Life Experiences have a great impact in our lives. The way we perceive the world and the things we desire from life are all based on and shaped by our experiences as well as by our relationships that we have with others. The relationships we carry throughout our lives and the experiences that come with it can actually alter ones personality and character. Jennie Dixianna becomes a vindictive and skilled woman who was made to be that way by the events in her life. Jennie becomes someone with various personalities who likes to seek revenge for power towards the men that she encounters. Jennie develops multiple identities at a young age …show more content…
After a while, her father began to see Jennie as his wife and sexually abused her. Jennie was so young when she was sexually abused, she had no control over it. She had no choice but to deal with it as “she kept her eyes screwed shut, held onto the image of her mother smiling.” (Day, 34) Because she had no control of what was happening and had no choice but to deal with it, Jennie found a way to cope with her father’s awful act. She would think of her mother because it was what made her feel warm and she had a special place in her heart for her. Every time she thought of her mother, it would remind her of good memories even if they were very limited. The good memories she holds on to of her mom are her safe haven in her head which helped her escape the reality for a brief moment. Although she goes through all this trauma those memories were enough to numb out her feelings at the moment. Aside from being her father’s substitute towards his sexual act, she has to grow up at a very young age. Due to her father being neglectful and absentminded, Jennie became the “man and woman of the house: cook, farmer, laundress, barterer”(Day, 35). Farming and …show more content…
She is still a doll, pretending to be people that she is not, but she is controlling herself. She is choosing to be whoever she wants to be. Jennie encounters Porter for the first time during their poker card play. When she joined the poker table with other powerful and wealthy men, Jennie played her cards “with a sweet, demure bluff that masked her skill” (Day, 25). During the game, she puts on her sweet and shy personality to mask her inner strong and vengeful self. When the men see this “dainty, frail and reticent” girl, they let their guards down because they assume that Jennie is just there fooling herself in front of all these men(Day, 25). To these men, Jennie is just a fragile girl, but she knows exactly what she wants from these men. Being taking advantage of when she was younger by her father makes her seek for revenge and power in the men that she encounters. She feels as though all men are the same; looking for someone weak and helpless to take advantage of. As the poker game goes on, Day describes “Jennie’s blond hair glistened like flask, and as the hours passed, the men’s eye drooped while hers flashed dark diamonds” (Day, 25). Day uses these adjectives to describe and to show that the one that is in control during that game is Jennie. She lowers herself in order manipulate these men to make them feel as if they