"Hazel Tells LaVerne"
Katharyn Howd Machan
One would have to be blind not to notice that this poem is written informally. Even though not a single letter is capitalized, not a single apostrophe signifies a contraction, and there is a total lack of punctuation, the colloquialisms and usage of the vernacular play an integral role in giving meaning to the poem.
Most significantly, the use of colloquialisms and the vernacular serve to characterize LaVerne. Because she is cleaning out a bathroom at Howard Johnson's, the reader can safely presume that she is a member of the lower classes. This presumption is further strengthened by this prevalence of informality, vernacular, and general incorrectness. While a more educated person would have said "must have", LaVerne says, "when all of a sudden up pops this frog musta come from the sewer" (Machan). This use of the vernacular and colloquialisms paints LaVerne as someone in an unfavorable position in society unable to move upward based on her education.
This indirect characterization through informal writing points out an important dichotomy. When the frog promises her a life as a proper princess, she responds with a grammatically incorrect insult. What this points out is that, because of her position in society, LaVerne is unable to take promises of a better life seriously. More specifically, she views fairy-tale endings as ludicrous. To a person who does not even know how to form a grammatically correct sentence, a life at the upper end of society where people must speak correctly is as unattainable as a talking frog.
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