Facundo Mello

Literature III
Primera Prueba Parcial
June 27, 2020

 Imagine you are Leila at the end of Her First Ball. How is she different
after the party?

In ‘Her First Ball’ Leila goes through a series of events that result in
drastic changes of her life perspective. This changes her whole character
in different ways. First of all, the overcoming of the euphoric bliss state
she was in, as the key to the transformation, then, the realization of life
cycles that the ‘fat man’ brings upon her, and finally the way his speech
works as a ‘reality vaccine’ for her.

To start considering the changes that Leila undergoes during that

night, it is necessary to consider the euphoric state of full joy she was in,
before it went south. It wasn’t only Leila’s first ball, it was also one of the
few (if not the only) times she went into such a crowded and urbanized
gathering. Through the narrative, and mainly near the beginning, we learn
about the main character’s way of living, which could be described as
rather tranquil. This information helps us understand the contrast of
environments that led to Leila’s feelings at that point. As the narrator
explains, ‘the rush of longing she had had to be sitting on the veranda of
their forsaken up-country home (…), was changed to a rush of joy so sweet
that it was hard to bear alone’. The contrast is made clear by the author,
who successfully portrays Leila’s stronger than ever feelings at that point
of the night, and which make the impacting realization that follows such a
transformational one.
 Once we understand the reach of the main character’s feelings on
that night, the impact of her noticing of life cycles becomes clearer. Before
the fat man gives Leila his gloomy speech, we already get certain hints
that tell us she isn’t quite aware of these type of matters, as it happens
when we read that ‘Laura passed and gave her the faintest little wink; it
made Leila wonder for a moment whether she was quite grown up after
all’. And indeed, Leila is devastated after her dance with the fat man. The
fat man’s cynical words really dwell on her because of this. ‘Was this first
ball only the beginning of her last ball, after all?’ thinks Leila, who was
forced to consider a considerably undesirable result of her life.
Nonetheless, as she starts considering the inevitable existence of life
cycles and their ending, she also starts realizing their emerging beginning,
therefore having one more effect on her way of thinking.

It is towards the very last part of the narrative, that we notice how
Leila’s thinking works before and after the ball. The fat man’s speech was
exactly like a vaccine for her, as, although it definitely harmed her, it may
not have been for the worse. After she felt compromised to go back
dancing once again, the rainbow showed in the middle of that storm, as
the narrator describes how ‘in one minute, in one turn, her feet glided,
glided. The lights, the azaleas, the dresses, the pink faces, the velvet
chairs, all became one beautiful flying wheel’. And as a flying wheel, going
circles, so went Leila back to enjoying what minutes ago was destroyed by
a sorrowful glance at reality. But this time Leila was not the same, this
time she had grown aware, and began to enjoy things from a different
perspective, even to the point that when she bumped into the man that
brought such disgrace to her night, ‘she smiled at him more radiantly than
ever’.
 To sum up, we should review the key concepts that made such an
impact on the main character possible. Going from the most noticeable
state of bliss Leila was in at the beginning, through the noticing of life
cycles as something that obviously affect her too, and ending with the
effect of the fat man’s speech, which acted pretty much as a ‘vaccine of
reality’ for her.