Q: What does the juxtaposition of the urban myths and legends add to the story? What sense do we get of the narrators own story, filtered through fairy tales?
In one way, you could see the narrators constant reiteration of these sorts of tales as a symbol of her quick jump from child and daughter to sexualized wife and mother. The way she explains and almost believes them as facts or some sort of allegorical guidance resembles that of a young child, getting scared of rumors they heard on the playground. It shows how this narrator only had a very brief time to explore herself before getting settled down with a husband and child.
On the hand, it does reflect the fairy-tale nature of the narrator’s ribbon predicament. It’s more violent like the original fairy tales, with heel cuttings and death galore, but it does share a sort of magical curse idea. Like our narrator has this secret curse, nobody knows why (including her) and nobody else can trespass close to the area of the curse. The suburban and urban legends also bring the reader back into the real world, as it isn’t set in mystical or magical setting.
The myths and legends mostly add to the eerie and lonely atmosphere our narrator is trapped in. She has a husband and child, yet she still fixates on these stories she heard as a young girl or teen, as if she hasn’t developed pass this adolescent period and she’s still worried that these boogeymen or people with hooks are gonna come get her.
Womens Lit. Blog 