Hazel Tells Laverne

Hazel Tells Laverne by Katherine Howd Machan, is a very different story. It is told in a very odd way, and has no punctuation. The poem is riddled with literary techniques. The many I noted include personification, motif, anecdote, ballad, allusion, and colloquialism. The ones I found most important are motif and colloquialism. The colloquialism gives insight into the identity of the narrator. Machan writes, "well i screams' ya little green pervert an i hitsm with my mop an has ta lush the toilet down three times" (Machan).  This shows that the narrator is uneducated. My guess is that she is African American, due to the fact that the other poems that I have profiled, have been about African Americans.  The other important literary technique is motif. Machan repeats the phrase "me a princess" (Machan) twice. This shows that Hazel doesn't think much of herself. She doesn't believe she can be a princess. She believes she couldn't possibly be chosen to be the frog prince's princess. The poem shows that importance of even the uneducated, and the poor. It is not simply the classic snow white, Cinderella character that can become a princess. Even Hazel, an uneducated person can be chosen by the frog. We all have importance, and are all of great value.