"Hazel Tells Laverne"

"Hazel Tells Laverne"
by Katharyn Howd Machan

I really enjoyed the speaker's dialect in this poem; the author uses this dialect and certain diction to point out specific traits in the speaker.  The first thing I noticed about this poem was the there is no punctuation or capitalization and many of the words are slang or shortened: "so i goes ta flushm down/ but sohelpmegod he starts talkin..." (Machan)  This shows that the speaker is energetic and emotional, but also uneducated.  Her job is to clean out bathrooms in a trashy hotel, and the thought of her becoming a princess is ridiculous.  The line, "me/ a princess" (Machan) is read as a question and shows Hazel's disbelief in her own personal ability to be a princess.  These elements contribute to indirect characterization as we learn more about the speaker through her phrasing and word choice.

In answering question number one, I said that my first response to this poem was that it was very funny.  I could just see an energetic African American woman gossiping with her friend Laverne and enjoying telling her this unbelievable tale.  Hazel cleans in a not-so-good hotel, so therefore we know she is not financially well off.  She is not high up in society and neither she nor her friend would probably live in great locations.  I guess the hotel she works at is gross enougjh to have frogs in the toilet.  All in all, I liked the revision of the original fairy tail, and found it very humorous.