Light in August
What is The Dietician's Toothpaste
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Little Joe Christmas' fascination with this pink, tasty toothpaste leads him into more trouble than he could have imagined. Its pink sweetness is intertwined in the young boy's mind with the rosy, feminine face of the dietician. Although he is too young to realize it, the toothpaste symbolizes femininity and sexuality, and his initial positive response to it is psychologically healthy. After he is punished cruelly as a result of his fascination with the toothpaste, little Joe Christmas' associations with femininity and sexuality become warped and angry.