"So she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up."
In this poem the speaker is reflecting a girl's life. The girl in the poem grows up a normal life, and once she hits puberty, she is told by a classmate, "You have a great big nose and fat legs" which means the classmate called her ugly. The author is emphasizing that even though the girl was completely normal, her peers only focused on her looks. She was told what to do to be accepted by them. As it would on anyone, the way her classmates treated her made her feel self-conscious. Eventually, she did not accept herself and couldn't take it anymore, so she killed herself, which is the meaning of the quote above. It's sad to think about, but the story depicted in this poem happens all the time. I think Piercy is trying to convey the message of being kind to all people and focusing on what is on the inside more than the out. The whole last stanza was ironic because with her legs covered and make up on, the other people finally said she looked pretty. This is supposedly "a happy ending," when truthfully it is a tragedy.
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