The notion of rags to riches is a dominant theme in American Literature. However, fairy tales demonstrate a different theme. The idea of a character going from rags to riches show characters rising from the low class to high class in society due to hard work and determination. In fairy tales, characters indeed go from rags to riches, but it is due to a magical or chance occurrence-- it is the notion of happily ever after. Anne Sexton explores the notion of happily ever after in her version of the famous fairy tail, "Cinderella."
             She sets up an introduction to her story of "Cinderella" with four stanzas each revealing different happily ever after scenarios. The examples consist of a plumber with a large family that goes from "toilets to riches," a nursemaid that goes from "diapers to Dior," a milkman that goes from "homogenized to martinis," and a charwoman that goes from "mops to Bonwit Teller." The first line of the poems is, "You always read about it:" I think this is a good way to begin the poem because it places emphasis on how unlikely the situations about to be described occur. Cinderella is just another example of a happily ever after story that people read about but don't believe in reality. Each of the introductory stanzas end with "That Story." I think that this places further emphasis on the fact that those examples seem make believe and do not actually happen to ordinary people.
             Anne Sexton's version of the Cinderella story is not the conventional story. There are a lot of differences in the actual plot of the tale, but most importantly it contradicts the idea of "Cinderella" being a children's fairy tale because the connotation shifts to be more violent in the second half of the poem. When the prince is looking for who the slipper fits, both of Cinderella's step sister
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