Sasha Jensen's Interior Landscape - Essay Example

How she sees the world and life, how individuals should treat them, is expressed in the scene she describes when remembering that job in the dress shop, dealing with the bald, old Englishwoman and her daughter. This is how she would like to be, not how she was, or is. Already, we see the complexity of this character. She has suffered betrayal, dreadful poverty, the death of a child and many hurts and views herself as a victim. Yet she retains a fine sense of irony, the ability to see through others, and a recognition of her own condition and despair.

She is contradictory in the extreme, This last comment gives an insight into Sasha's alienation, 'they' always seeing her in ways she does not perceive herself, 'they' always wanting to take from her. On the other hand, in contradiction, she agrees to, then seeks the company of the young Russian, visits the painter and goes to great lengths to improve her appearance, with make up, hair dye and a new hat. That these 'improvements' make Sasha feel good, signifies a universal truth, without offending feminist principles; that most females would relate to these feelings.

She becomes empowered, this person who is at times incapable of expressing her intelligent and perceptive thoughts aloud, past or present. Using the strength of that empowerment, she sees Rene, the gigolo, as an opportunity to pay back for the hurts endured throughout her life. In fact, they recognize in each other, two outsiders, wounded in many ways. Sasha's perceptions are so damaged that she is unable to trust that he will cause no further hurt. So alienated is she from the concept of human kindness, just for its own sake, that she continues to let her experiences prevent her from accepting his offer of just loving kindness for one night.

While the prospect of meeting him again excites, Sasha encapsulatesher feelings thus: 'I won't do a thing - not a thing. I will not grimace and posture before these