A Broken Women

...

The relationship with sister showed Jennie how to treat mean in her life. The relationship between Porter and Jennie reveals her need for control, by using beauty to get what she wants. The idea of control comes from when Jennie was sixteen and killed her father, Jennie uses the idea of “control” to her advantage. She needs control to get what she wants. When Jennie sleeps with different men, they are in a hurry to leave and leave some of their valuables behind such as watches, change, and money. Jennie keeps these things in her cedar box that she had since she was little. The cedar box is where she keeps her pride position from different men she slept with. None of the stuff in the box represent her. She uses these objects that the men left behind to blackmail them into giving her what she wants. Therefore, when Porter and Jennie sleep, together, Porter leaves a note behind: “Tomorrow, she'd ask Porter for a big tin washtub, later a feather mattress, and slowly work her way into a mirrored Pullman. If they failed to appear, Jennie would play her ace. But in the meantime, she closed her treasure chest and locked it for safekeeping” (44). Jennie does not have any feeling for Porter nor does Porter for her. Jennie is using Porter to get fame, by having fame she have full control of herself and people and power. Without having any of those things Jennie life would be upside down.

Some women uses their beauty and talent to manipulate men to get what they want. In the story “Jennie Dixianna- or The Secret to the Spin of Death” by Cathy Day, the main character, Jennie, to uses her beauty to get what she wants. Having such a traumatic childhood lead Jennie having a broken personality from her dad abusing her from a young age. As well, leads Jennie to kill her father to take power back over her life that leads her struggling to find herself. Jennie gets the idea of need of power from Sister when she and Sister kill Slater, Jennie’s father. From then on Jennie need to control people such as porter.