Content Warning: This novel and guide discuss rape, child abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional), domestic violence, murder, kidnapping, torture, and death by suicide.

Throughout the narrative, women and girls in the novel flash their smiles. Smiles represent the docile nature expected of women and a way to get attention from men, something that signifies their value and worthiness. Heather narrates that “I figured if I practiced, I could make it prettier so that when guys ask me to smile, I had something to offer” (17). Practicing smiles also becomes a way to condition Junie since she begs Brenda and Heather to teach her. Heather realizes this when she sees Junie smile through her fear at the cabin after she’s been abducted by Ed. In this moment, her smile is a symbol of oppression and sorrow to Heather.

By the end of the narrative, though, the smile comes to symbolize resilience and liberation for the novel’s female characters. When the girls go to Valleyfair, men tell them to smile and Junie replies: “My sister‘s friends are dead, and the people I thought I could trust I can’t … So I’ll damn well decide for myself when I’m ready to smile” (304).