Comparing Editing and Intertitles

Here we see a dissolve used to indicate that this is a distance in time, not necessarily an oddity of mental faculty; however, it does seem that because it is foreshadowing a place, that this could be an effect of memory rather than complete foreshadowing.

We, then, dissolve back to the present.

Through this fade out, the director seems to be referencing silent film diction surrounding the idea that a fade indicates a large amount of time going out compared to the clear-cut changes of scenes used previously. This fade is preparing us for the time distance between her getting sick and some of her restless nights that will appear right after.

Here is where the fade comes back in, and we begin the dreaming sequence.

Here we get the first case of superimposition, layering the father laying on his bed while reading over the main character's struggling sleep. This indicates that what we are seeing is a dream, and due to her frantic nature, she is showing us that she feels uneasy. This indicates that she is unhappy with her father's situation at a deeper level than intellectual, and goes to show a later theme that poverty is not just a physical issue for the main character, but a mental one.

Now, in continuation of the superimposition, we see a large hand with the word "poverty" written on it reaching down to grab the main character. This indicates, as continued with the dream or nightmarish thoughts, that she is losing control of her life due to poverty and her father's lack of a job.

Fade out

The image dissolves, leaving the "new" and desired shoes in the new frame. This indicates the mental observation or faculty of the main character in her latest attempt at accepting her place in poverty, as she struggles to mentally accept that she continues to not have a replacement for her broken shoes.

However, the return of the dissolve to the old and broken shoes, or this type of graphic match, indicates that this, indeed, was merely a mental trick or desire of the main character's, and the return to the real world is just as cruel as she remembers.

While not a direct type of editing, this emphatic framing of the main character hints at an image much like what would be conveyed with superimposition, as it creates almost two pairs of images like we saw with the example of superimposition earlier on. We are now able to see her in two perspectives; the one in the mirror, broken and looking as if a portrait or someone who will be forgotten to history, and two, her present self, as she presents more illegible. This indicates that through all of her trials and attempts at being happy, this symbolizes a solidified defeat.

Sadly, she imagined a different life one filled with luxury and pleasure. Provides exposition for previous POV sequence with the shoes and transitions to ballroom sequence.

Wednesday and Thursday in contined to rain. Establishes timeline of events.

There they were.../Her shoes!/Poor child, she knew / them by heart. Narration as free indirect discourse that precedes close-up of desired object (the shoes), creating a narrative frame for the close-up as a POV shot.

"Other men find work!" dialogue spoken by mother to father, advances characterization of father as a bum.

Every evening she scraped the caked mud from her bare, swollen feet. Exposition that creates pathos for the protagonist.

She caught a bad cold. Her throat hurt / and her head ached. Exposition creating pathos.

Sometimes she lay awake / in the night--wide-eyed--/ thinking of the fate of / her family. Provides exposition and explanation of the fantastically personified Hand of Poverty in the next shot.

By Saturday she was so / utterly miserable that it / seemed she could hardly / live until that night when / she would get her / new shoes. Exposition establishes timeline and also uses free indirect discourse to frame the next sequence and its exchange.

At last it was time to receive the blessed pay envelope. Exposition establishing timeline and mood.

"Aren't you going to me / the three dollars, Mama?" dialogue as exposition for previous exhange.

"I can't do it, child. We got to eat / and no one will let us have / any thing more except / for cash." Dialogue explaining core narrative problem from mother's perspective and the issue of debt.

"I've got to have a new pair of shoes." Dialogue to father.

"I'll be sure to find some / work, and I'll give you / the money then." Dialogue after father shows off his broken shoes, establishes family power dynamic and reason for poverty.

"We haven't tasted / meat all week, mother." Dialogue from younger siblings expresses pathos and desperation, and basic needs as trumping commodity culture and personal need.

It was only a matter / of hours before they would / literally fall to pieces. / She felt that the end / had come. Exposition with free indirect discourse. It also parallels the fate of the object (her broken shoes) with the individual's mind and the narrative conclusion.

"Give me carefare, mama. I'm going to Lil's / over Sunday." Dialogue as exposition that establishes that the protagonist lies to her mother because the next sequence at The Blue Goose.