Since youth, we've been told that there are certain expectations that need to be met, and certain morals that must be followed throughout one's life. This has always been especially true for women in the 1900's. The roles of women in the early 19th century were mainly at home, where they were expected to cook, clean and care for the children. However, going into the 1940's, roles of women were changing. If women were not married and taking care of their household, then they were expected to be educated and working. Otherwise, they were often shamed and frowned upon in society. Often, people get so carried away with pleasing society that they don't acknowledge the fact that they're better off creating their own pursuit of happiness. In the poem "Sadie and Maud", Gwendolyn Brooks creates a situation where two characters, whom are sisters, go two separate ways and make completely different lifestyle choices, resulting in an ironic ending. .
The first two lines introduce the two sisters, Sadie and Maud, and show the first major lifestyle difference the two make. The two sisters are separated when "Maud [goes] to college" and "Sadie [stays] at home" (1, 2). She is showing how unlike Sadie, Maud is trying to live up to one of the expectations society has set upon them. The next four lines describe the way Sadie saw and handled life. Brooks uses, "a fine-tooth comb" as a way to symbolize how Sadie didn't miss one single detail in her life (4). "She didn't leave a tangle in. Her comb found every strand" (5, 6). She purposely took four entire lines to incorporate that Sadie faced a lot of obstacles in life, to show how important it was to the reader that Sadie lived life to the fullest.
Sadie is a positive, independent person and Brooks shows this in the next few lines. She uses diction to explain that Sadie was a "livingest [chit]" (7).
