Millay's The Girl Who Was Afraid To Be

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Millay’s complex book, “The Sea of Tranquility,” and Gill’s heart-wrenching poem, “The Girl Who Was Afraid to Be,” display that you should never let the actions of others defy you. There are quite a few similarities between the two literary works for instance both tell the story of a girl whom the world broke. For Millay’s female lead, Nastaya, it was having the thing she loved most being taken away from her in the most brutal way possible. “I hate it when it stutters and trembles and reminds me that my identity is gone”. For Gill's female lead who goes unnamed in the poem, it was being broken down by someone whom the adored, “Someone she loved broke her heart by ignoring her beautiful words”. Nastaya and the girl in the poem let the actions …show more content…

In “the Sea of Tranquility”, there are numerous aspects of the book that are nothing like the poem. Unlike the poem an abundance of anger is expressed in the book. To illustrate when Nastaya was almost killed by her attacker or the person who broke her, she lost something she cherished more than her life, the ability to play the piano.She also lost the ability to have kids and lost months of school in therapy and in and out of hospitals. This left her a bitter shadow of who she once was. “ I hate my left hand. I hate to look at it. I hate it when it stutters, and trembles and reminds me that my identity is gone. But I look at it anyways because it also reminds me that I’m going find the boy that took everything from me. I’m going to kill the boy that killed me, and when I kill him I’m going to do it with my left hand.”. This quote shows that she believes everything she once was is gone and demonstrates how she let the actions of the person who almost killed her redefine her identity and outlook on the world. Nastaya also has a dismal view on life, unlike the girl in the poem who never expresses emotion. For example, “ I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I’m still able

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