Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter Analysis

Poverty in the Rural South of America

People in poverty aspire to live similar to a middle-class citizen or a person who lives a life with no stress. In the memoir, Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter Barbara Moss illustrates the difficult conditions of a common family living in poverty in rural Alabama. Moss suffers from an abusive father who is addicted to alcohol, a mother who tolerates the abusive relationship of her husband, and lack of the minimum essentials to maintain living. The lack of minimum essentials includes food, health, and housing. The hardships of being in poverty inspire Moss to change her future. The author’s mother appreciation of poetry and music influences Moss’s aspirations of becoming a writer.

The drunken father of the

Moss did not feel beautiful due to her bones in her face “grew like a thin pine tree”. The lack of dental care caused her crooked teeth to protrude “so badly it was hard to swallow.” The abnormalities make her feel inferior to other girls she attends school with. Her mother’s sacrifice of when she “spooned the poisoned corn and beans into her mouth, ravenously, eyes closed, hands shaking. We, her seven children, sat around the table watching her for signs of death, our eyes leaving her only long enough to glance at the clock to see how far the hands had moved.” This illustration displays the lack of resources provided in rural Alabama that he mother risks her life to feed the eight children. Difficult living conditions, such as this illustration determinates Moss to escape from the life-risking everyday problems of finding a meal to eat.

Despite Barbara Moss’s abnormalities and setbacks she is a successful writer/author. Although she changes her face structure when she is an adult, she embraces that beauty comes from within. Her mother’s strength of tolerating unacceptable nonsense from her father makes her a stronger person. Moss’s yearning to appear beautiful misguides her from the true meaning of beauty, but she learns beauty is not defined by physical appearances. Barbara Moss’s memoir inspires people everywhere. This novel displays a sense of escaping poverty and becoming successful in anything yearned