I am seven and a girl, and Edgars Kleppers is a silly, stupid ballerino in shiny warm-up pants and purple sweatbands—but Edgars has a beautiful sister.
This sentence adds a visualization of how the author feels and lets readers see through the characters eyes. This also embodies one of the smaller conflicts in the passage - the author's disregard for Edgars Kleppers. It also introduces the character's fascination for his sister, Diana.
I am seven, and I go to West Seattle Christian School, and I want to be a sugar plum fairy like all the other girls, understanding that Diana, who is a perfect ballerina and whose legs split all the way open in the air like someone unzipped her from the suit of her body, must play Clara, because she is more girl than most girls.
This sentence exhibits imagery very well. It gives the readers an understanding of how inferior the main character feels in terms of beauty and her value in the dance group because she is not as beautiful or perfect as Diana.
This is 1986
This sentence is repeated several times throughout the text. This reminds readers of the time period and associates this issue with the year and shows the significance of these occurrences, given the timeframe.
My mother thinks I should play a sugar plum fairy like the rest of the girls, but when she comes to see Miss Erika, we are standing in a row at the barre, plié-ing and plié-ing, and their conversation goes on so long that my legs want to collapse beneath me, and Miss Erika says we all look like little wilted flowers, then laughs in her French-Canadian way.
This sentence adds a lot of meaning and imagery to the story. not only are there vivid verbs and description, but the sentence also gives the story a purpose. It shows a conflict in the authors life, in which she and her mom think that she should be a sugar plum fairy, just like the rest of the girls, but her teacher disagrees.
This is 1986, and I am seven in Seattle, and Miss Erika is French from Canada with a black leotard and a tight bun twisted like a seashell.
I think this is an example of great parallelism, and also a good form of imagery. One part of imagery is putting together the setting and time period of the excerpt, and this first sentence gives us some information of the location, time, and a little background on the main characters.