The Clean Rinse

In Nye’s The Clean Rinse, I see an exhausted girl who keeps losing more and more of herself to a culture that is not her own. My interpretation of this piece is based off the difficulty the author is having figuring out who she is and where she belongs. In her journey of self-identity I see the American culture pushing itself upon her as she tries to hold on to her family culture. American culture forces its traditions upon people even when they do not want to change or accept these new ways of thinking. I see the author as learning to expect this and she is beginning to learn how to handle it as she explains “every time you go through this you lose a little less color.” I believe by writing about her culture and her family this is her way of keeping connected with her culture and remembering where she came from, and not letting “[America] wring it out of [her]”. Her somber tone allows me to draw the conclusion that she is tired of the continuous battle she faces while trying to figure out who she is and what her purpose is. Her words reveal the trouble everyone will face on their path to finding their identity while remembering their family history and where they came from while figuring out where they are going. She also explains that it okay to lose your path along the way because we are human, “you are real, 100% cotton, you can wrinkle” She speaks of hope and resilience when she writes, “accept that as a gift” and this might mean that going off the path and letting other cultures influence you will help you dig deeper into yourself to find out who you really are. By “accepting these rinses” I believe it will make you a stronger person. In the last line of this poem the journey is over because “after a while, you will have nothing more they can take” at this point she has found peace in herself and made peace with the cultures that had once separated her and tore the color from her person.