People sometimes face obstacles in which they may or may not be able to overcome. In the text Joy, a twelve year old girl, has her leg blown off by a shotgun. Since the incident it seems as if Joy has tried to be the ugliest she can be;it almost seems as if the leg took over her. Joy became so ugly that she even changed her name to Hulga, so that it could reflect her personality. "Hulga got up and stumped, with about twice the noise that was necessary, into her room and locked the door."
Hulga wants to make herself as ugly as possible and by stomping around she shows just how ugly she can be. There was nothing pretty about Hulga's artificial leg and she made sure that anything that crossed its path would also turn ugly. When the bible salesman came into Hulga's life she thought he was her next victim when in all reality it was her who suffered in the end. All of Hulga's pride was taken away as soon as that salesman took her leg and ran off. Hulga thought she was more superior than everyone else, but once that ugly bulk of wood was stolen from her, she realized that she was the one who was naive.
Good summary. Why do you think she would want to portray herself as someone ugly? Do you think she changed once the leg was stolen?
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