Title: Poor Girl
Author: Traci Castleberry
Date of First Publication: 2015
Place of Publication: Daughters of Frankenstein
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; BYRONIC HERO; QUEER FRANKENSTEIN; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS
Critical Summary: A woman kidnaps a young girl about sixteen to eighteen years of age who is poor and sick from possibly pneumonia. The woman, Jacqueline Rivera, has been kidnaping people in order to perform tests on them. She has been experimenting in order to attempt to grow back her hand that was amputated during her time at sea. Jaqueline, or Jackie, killed her husband and stowed away on a ship where she was pretending to be a man. After her hand was amputated, she was forced to abandon life out on the water and has been testing and murdering people to find the right concoction to grow her hand back. While experimenting on the young girl, Jackie develops a romantic relationship with her which causes her to rethink her desire for a new hand. However, when Jackie finishes her potion she pours it onto the poor girl’s hand that had burn scaring. Despite the young girls screams to stop the experiment, Jackie lets her suffer and notices the scaring from her burns are beginning to disappear and repair itself. Hoping that the potion will work on her hand she pours it onto her own, but what grows is far from anything human. Instead of growing a hand, Jackie grows a monstrous paw. Noticing that the young girl who has already been deathly sick is beginning to die, she rushes to help her. After realizing that her experiment failed, Jackie accepts her changed hand and rekindles her relationship with the young girl who has forgiven her.
Similar to Victor Frankenstein, Jackie becomes consumed with her experiment that pushes her to commit heinous crimes. She is so committed to fixing her disfigured hand that she ignores the ones around her who care about her, like the young girl and her friend at the shop. Jackie risks her relationship with the young girl by still experimenting on her. Despite the young girl still having romantic feelings for Jackie even though she’s missing a hand, Jackie cannot accept her disfigurement. The theme of “android” is also evident in Poor Girl as she tries to create an artificial hand from concoctions that she creates. When she is unable to create a human hand and instead creates a paw, she is more horrified with herself then she was before. Jackie claims she is worse than a woman because now she reflects what she is, a monster. Her paw is a reflection of who she is and what she has done. However, despite making the young girl suffer and the possible crimes or killings she has done to her previous subjects, Jackie is able to still have a somewhat happy ending. She is able to accept her flaw and turn away from her “mad scientist” persona that allows her to live on with her life. Unlike other mad scientists where their creation usually leads to their demise, Poor Girl gives an alternate ending that presents a protagonist who overcomes her obsession and is able to come to terms with her imperfections.
Administrative Notes: Klaritza Rico, CSUF; Cynthia Alvarado (editing)