Taylor Green
Professor Latta
English 211
30 June 2013 “Hazel Tells LaVerne”
The poem “Hazel Tells LaVerne” by Katharyn Machan has to do with The Princess and the frog story. The poem is suggesting that most women stay in the bathroom mirror to make sure they are looking good at all times. Although the narrative is simply told, the woman is simply speaking to the frog about how beautiful she is.
This poem is taken place at night in a Howard Johnson Hotel, which means this woman is on vacation and she is staying there for at least a week because she is cleaning her own bathroom. Hazel uses the word flushm down the toilet, which means she must be a girl that grew up in the country because she has a country accent.
This all took place in 1976 and during this time women did a lot of cleaning and men did most of the outside work. In this day and time both men and women do the inside and outside work.
Hazel also says for God to help her, which means she must be a Christian because she asks him to help her.
The rest of the story is referring back to the story of the Princess and the Frog. This is where the grog pops up and asks her to kiss him so that he can be made into man. This symbolizes the fiction of the poem because a frog can’t talk but the author placed that in the poem so that we could see that if you can’t see the beauty within yourself than no one else can.
The golden ball symbolizes the crystal ball that you rub to see what the Fairy God mother thought about how you looked in the mirror.
In the end Hazel says that she has to hit the frog with the mop and make him fall down the toilet and then she stressed that she was a princess even though she hit the frog. Princesses are not know to hit on things they are made to love and look cute but not this princess she did what she had to do.