Julia-Open Your Eyes

In "Julia" the woman in my opinion went with what she was given in life instead of trying to go against what everyone else thought or did. Even though she was born with the deformities of looking very old and growing hair everywhere on her body. These 2 problems which as stated in "Julia" gave her the nicknames of lion woman and the world's ugliest woman. As written in the poem Rose writes, "And I was there in the mirror and I was not." This shows that Julia is not being true to herself and just going through all of the motions of what her life is giving her. Instead of seeing her true self she sees someone else who is in her body. She more or less just needs to open herself up to pain and going against what everyone else labels her as or how they try to limit her.
When she married her husband, she did so because he was the closest person to her. When she sees him in the poem after she is dead she sees he just used her for money and fame. In the poem she is looking back at her life and sees finally what she allowed to happen to herself. This is why she was hoping it was just a trick or joke that she was seeing. At the end of the poem Rose writes, "It scares me so to be with child, lioness with cub." This represents to me almost the guilt she feels with letting her and her sons life end like this.
Kevin Ostempowski Post 1