Summary

In "Smartening Up," the first person narrator silently repeats a series of affirmations while having body hair removed. The pain is uncomfortable, but she feels she is changing her destiny (6). On her walk home, she wonders if she would have had a happier life if she were blonde. She sees "a wrinkly old couple," "ripped posters," a lonely man, and trash, and decides these things have "no part to play in [her] world" (8).

At home, she prepares dinner and puts on an American movie. When the doorbell rings she gets nervous. She opens the door to her aunt. Auntie pushes inside, exclaiming over the narrator's bad posture and diminutive apartment. She stays for dinner, scolding the whole time. After the movie, Auntie confronts the narrator about removing her hair, insisting she is "weakening" its "power" (13).

Furious and hurt, the...