Judith Wright poem Naked Girl and Mirror is about a girl
coming of age and the eternal and physical conflict. The girl rejects her
changes entirely in the beginning. She wants to cling on to what makes her
young and free. I love the delightful word choice in the first stanza; stars,
laugh, run etc. The young girl is scared of these changes. There is a tug of
war between the young girl and the mature women throughout the poem. The girl
wants to stay in her genderless body, to hold onto what makes her unique without
the pressure of gender role. She knows the changes her body goes through will
attract lovers. She fears these changes will take away her ownership of her
individuality transferring to societal functions of family and childbearing.
The mirror is a nice prop in the poem, distinguishing the transformation. She
later comes to term with her developments, but claims she will always be free
as she once used to be. It’s a beautiful poem; the first run through I was
confused about the speaker, whether it was the child, the woman, or the mirror.
The complimenting art is fitting for this poem.
the central idea of the poem is colonisation
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