This fictional story reads like a first-person screenplay penned in lithe and cheery tones. Once you begin, the narrative seems intent on keeping you in its grip, with nary a lull in the excitement and drama. The protagonist, an adept woman driven to turn her life around after a divorce by securing a stable job and income, takes a position with a problem-riddled cleaning squad. Although dogged by external pressures, the team’s attitude is fatalistic. “We’d love to find someone to blame, but who?”
The social issues raised in this story are a front to what is really a classic fairy tale that spotlights, not unlike the derision faced by the cleaning squad, the everyday challenges that women face living in a “man’s world”. Fairy tales like this persist because of the difficulties and unfairness of real life. They give hope to those bent on changing reality and offer an escape, however ephemeral, into romantic fantasy.