In the short story “The Falling Girl” by Dino Buzzati, the nineteen-year-old protagonist Marta, jumps off the top of a skyscraper, and when she hits the ground, she is already an old woman. This story is a metaphor for the lifelong battle for beauty. People who are born attractive receive advantages that someone with ordinary looks will never experience. Typical people desire these perks, and will do whatever it takes to get them. Faces and bodies shown in the media become examples for the type of look someone would need to be beautiful and acquire benefits. Aging is an obstacle that takes away the prefered youthful looks. While Marta is falling, she notices other girls around her who fall faster and begin to pass her. This scene is the author’s attempt at informing the reader of Marta’s jealousy of girls with natural beauty. Marta observes that “another girl was falling about thirty meters above her...For some unknown reason she came down much faster...” (292). There are numerous girls all trying to reach the same goal, which is their society's ideal of beauty. Women who are born with good-looks reach the goal faster than Marta and…show more content… This change represents Marta spending her entire life trying to become beautiful and dying before she stops chasing after her impossible expectations. When Marta passes by an elderly couple, as she nears the ground the husband says to his wife,“at these low floors only falling old women pass by. You can see beautiful girls from the 150th floor up. Those apartments don’t cost so much for nothing” (293). At the ending stages of life women get more wrinkles some focus on correcting those imperfections and some die before they are truly content. This metaphor represents the price paid for holding onto youthful appearance and the value placed on youth and beauty. As women get older, most begin to spend an increasing amount of money on attempts at keeping their youthful
