"The Lady in the Pink Mustang" by Louise Erdrich

After reading "The Lady in the Pink Mustang", a poem by Louise Erdrich, I was left with a sense of confusion because the lady described in the poem sounds as if she is just a normal girl living in her cadillac but at the same time I get the feeling that she is doing something scandalous in her pink mustang. The poem seems very permiscuous and makes the woman out to be a person who lives two different lives, one during the day and a completely different one by night.

The Body
In this poem the lady's body riding in the pink mustang is referred to many times. Her body "moving in the dust", "bare lapp", and "every time she is touched", refer to scandalous ways the woman's body moves.

Relations between night and day
The night can be known as a more provocative or permiscuous time of day compared to the daytime. Many people possess this persona during the day of being conservative and calm then at night when they go out with friends or to parties let their more outgoing or wild persona's out. In the poem Erdrich refers to the sun going down and the lady leaving with "less" the next morning than she had previously come with. This line possibly refers to prostituting.

Gender
In Erdrich's pem she depicts the lady in the pink mustang as almost being a prostitute or whore. Also, the pink car emphasizes the girl and how it is only the girl being the provocative or scandalous one, not the male. The author also talks about the lady "painting her nipples", maybe something that a stripper or prostitute might do. This again referring to something only a woman would most likely do.