Page by Leah Fox

The theme of self-discovery runs deep throughout the work. The narrator believes that “a body was like a cabinet of wonders inherited from a great-aunt: you didn't know what was in it, but one day you opened a drawer and pulled out something wonderful. I might be able to do things nobody else had even imagined. All I had to do was try everything” (Toes). With such simple, yet powerful statements, Jackson captures the wonder of self-invention. Her body is “a cabinet of wonders”, not because it is truly any different from any other human’s, but because she has decided that it is.

Despite her reverence for her own form, struggle also exists during this phase of growth and development. I would take a bet that if you asked any person off the street if they felt awkward in their own skin sometime throughout middle school and high school they would answer in the affirmative. I would take a bet that if they said no, they were lying to save face. In the sections about her legs, hips, and shoulders specifically, the narrator recounts how she felt too masculine as a young adult. She felt that she was too muscular to use the women’s restroom and too feminine to use the men’s. She states, “I wish I could keep my body out of the running, go to a third restroom, the one for monsters and hermaphrodites” (Arms). Her choice of wording is harsh, yet it conveys the feeling of desperation that pervades this key time in the period of maturation. To put it bluntly, people are dramatic when they’re young.

She also deals with the prospect of growing old. In her opinion, “Grown-up flesh has more and more in common with sand, bark, old canvas, rust and mud. We resemble inanimate things more and more, until one day we become one” (Legs). Here, the concept of the future is introduced, as well as her fear of what it might hold. This phenomena is common among those for whom old age seems forever away.