Most of us accept that the stories we were told as children were untrue, or at least fictionalized. At some point, the illusion was shattered and Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Cinderella became characters we remember fondly. But even though we recognized these figures and legends as illusions, we retained many of the feelings conveyed by the stories, without questioning their application to adult life. Anne Sexton often uses these innocent, childish images juxtaposed with cynical but more realistic situations to show that the lessons that society teaches children, and that they retain as adults, are illusions that do not adequately illustrate the corrupt and violent world we actually live in. Sexton's poem Cinderella, about rags-to-riches stories, clearly follows this pattern. First, the speaker tells four stories: that of a plumber who wins the lottery, that of a nanny who marries her boss's son, that of a milkman who makes his fortune in real estate and that of about a cleaning lady who becomes rich after a bus accident she was in. , and she collects on the insurance. The progression of these stories itself places cynicism within the form of the poem. The speaker begins with the story of a lottery winner, which is fortunate and could be seen as the universe helping a man struggling to care for the "twelve children." Next comes the nanny, who also experiences a romantic journey, but not as fortuitous as that lucky plumber, because she “captures the heart of the eldest son.” The choice of the word "capture" could be seen as a simple idiomatic happenstance, or more likely as an implication that the speaker believes that the nurse had an ulterior motive to love in her interactions with the son. After the nurse, there is the milkman. The milkman always has a romantic side...... middle of paper ...... the problem is not with people on an individual level, but rather with the society that puts them in the situations it experiences. This is significant because it shows that Sexton's goal is to illuminate the flaws and lies of society rather than those of the people. Often the reader can't help but feel a little discouraged after reading a collection of Anne Sexton's poems. Sexton herself was discouraged by the prospect of life, committing suicide at the age of 45 after years spent in mental institutions. His poems certainly take cynicism to the extreme, but they remain the type of extreme valuable to the literary canon. His poetry leaves the reader wondering about the world around them, now able to see past stories and experiences in a new light. And although in Sexton's case this light may be a shadow, the new depth it adds sheds light on what we truly hold pure..