Hand
Melody narrates, “Look back at me on that last day in May. Finally sixteen and the moment like a hand holding me out to the world.” The rhetorical hand portrays Melody’s sixteenth birthday as a defining milestone which demarcates her switch from childhood into youth. This hand guides her into a substantial chapter of her lifecycle.
Old
Melody expounds, “This - the corset wearing, the garters, the silk stockings - was as old as the house my father and I shared with my grandparents.” The allegorical oldness explicates the permanence of the dressing in the family. Melody’s family is orthodox based on how the girls are socialized to dress particularly once they are sixteen.
