In Domestic Work, 1937, Natasha Trethewey uses a hopeful, wishful and optimistic tone with the use of personification, imagery, and similes to show the life of an African American woman in the time period and the hopefulness she had to change her life. When cleaning someone’s house she “stared down her own face in the shine of copper-bottomed pots”. She looked at her reflection and analyzed herself which shows this is not who she wants to be. The toilet is personified when she said she would “pull the lid to--that look saying”. The toilet is trying to say something to her to help her “make a change” in her life. On Sunday’s she is happy and free and “the whole house dancing”. She is most hopeful on Sunday because the Sunday’s “are hers”. As she does her chores in her house she points out that “she blows dust from the broom like dandelion spores”. She compares the dust to dandelion spores because when someone blows a dandelion it represents a wish. This wish she has is embedded in her everyday life and even though she does not have best life she stays optimistic and this is shown through the use of tone, imagery, personification, and similes.