You might want to examine the way that the narrator, Mama,
introduces Maggie to us, and in particular the way that she is presented as being a
profoundly shy and timid young woman who is unable to assert herself against anybody and
has a very low self-esteem. Consider the way that Mama introduces her
daughter:
Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog
run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is
ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like
this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned
the other house to the
ground.
We can therefore see
how the scars that Maggie bears are at least partly responsible for her withdrawn nature
and her shyness and lack of confidence. Even when she asks her mother how she looks, she
still hides behind the door, only showing enough so her mother knows that she is there.
The physical disfigurement seems to operate as a symbol of her psychological
disfigurement.
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