Lysandra's Poem

657 Words3 Pages
Budge Wilson’s “Lysandra’s Poem” demonstrated how adversity pushed Lysandra to become bitter and cynical, causing her to interpret experiences in a negative light. Budge Wilson depicts how Lysandra’s upbringing in an abusive household caused her bottle up her emotional turmoil. Lysandra’s response to conflict is demonstrated when the Elaine recounts, “If I were in the house at the time, we would race upstairs at the first hint of conflict, and I would watch this withdrawal… I sat on the bed hunched under an afghan while Lysandra read on, her lips in a thin, tight smile.” (126) The way they turned their noses at the first hint of conflict speaks to how Lysandra tried to ignore the problems in her home. However, we see that Lysandra tried to mask her true emotions when her father became abusive. The words “thin” and “tight” to describe her smile illustrated that Lysandra actually felt constricted and angry inside, despite pretending to be happy by putting on a smile. In the quote, Elaine describes this experience as Lysandra’s “withdrawal”, which tells us that she became emotionally unavailable and cold to the outside world. It says us how she retreated into her own private thoughts of anger and embarrassment, instead of sharing it with her friend. This shows adversity Lysandra faced during childhood made her to become more susceptible to life’s challenges, as she was not taught to address her emotions in a healthy and positive manner. After losing the poetry contest, Lysandra became withdrawn and cold, as she believed that Elaine had taken her prize from her. Lysandra expressed her point of view when the two characters discuss the incident a year later: “Lysandra,” I pleaded. “It wasn’t my fault.” “Wasn’t it?” she said, eyes distant” (130) Lysandra believed that Elaine had intentionally won the poetry contest and taken the prize away from her. Lysandra
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