The Lady In The Pink Mustang Summary

“The Lady in the Pink Mustang” is a poem written by Louise Erdrich that is about a traveling woman that sells her time for money. She is considered an outsider by the norms of society, because she is a working girl. She is not a traditional sex worker; whereas a regular prostitute has only a little strip of pavement, to sell their wares. Whilst the Lady has the roads of country to sell herself. She runs freely like a wild mustang, but can only stay in the limits of the country. This poem could be speaking about itinerants, how they are on the edge of society, not quite living by the rules, but still not be able to be free.
The Lady sells her body during the darkness. She loses parts of herself, such as her inhibitions, her ties to a normal

/ She is always at that place, seen from behind,” (18-20). The passage may indicate that everyone else is moving on with their lives; growing up, going on to working in more conventional jobs. The Lady is stuck in her own limbo. Never able to move on with her life, and never able to get out of being a highway hooker. The last line seems to say that the Lady is always where everyone knows where she is, but she can never be caught up to. As in, referring to the people that are always in the background of everyone’s life, but are never wanted to be met. The Lady lives in her own world to escape her reality of what she really is. This is her way to deal with what she is and that she never seems to get out of. She is branded, by the people that is everyone else. She is branded as a traveling outsider, as a tramp. She cannot hide this mark of hers, but she maintains her mark on society. When the sixth stanza states that “She owns them, no one will admit what they cannot/ come close to must own them.” (24-25); it’s talking about the lady being an inexplicable legend. She captures the mind of the average person. She enthralls these people so much that they pursuit her every move, to understand her. She lets them come with her, on her journey. The people she brings with her are there for her body. Not her personality, or for herself. To the people who chase her, it’s just a quick

This sound like she is nothing, but just garbage that can be used perhaps once or twice and then she is done, used, trash. That is what it feels like to be a prostitute. The client uses them for as long as they like, and then once they are done. They pay for their time, and gone. Then the Worker is left empty sometime, and after a while once the Worker get older and perhaps worn out, they are thrown out by the Pimp, or the Madame, or perhaps even on their own accord they stop what they are doing, and move on. The Lady’s value is dwindling. It could be her self-worth, it could be that she is just growing old; To live, instead of turn, on a dime. One light point that is so down in value. Painting her nipples silver for a show, she is thinking, You out there. What do you know.