Analysis on Poem Barbie Doll

In the poem “Barbie Doll,” the author Marge Piercy provides four short stanzas to inform readers of how society and culture puts pressure on young girls. In this poem, a young girl’s life flashes before her eyes as she tries to live up to society standards. The tone of this poem is depressing and sad. In this poem Marge Piercy uses a theme, symbols, and a plot to describe the ideal girl. The theme of this poem is that society is not accepting of people who do not represent the ideal woman. In “Barbie Doll”, the young girl is teased about her nose and legs. The girl was advised to play cool, charming, eat right and exercise. She tried all these things but in the end she still wasn’t successful at pleasing her classmates. In the end, trying to please her classmates resulted in her cutting off her nose and legs, which lead to death. In today’s society as girls grow into young women, they are told to look a certain way. The ideal look usually involves being skinny, make-up, long hair, and a beautiful smile. In the real world, one of these leading factors is known as anorexia. Girls will not eat, over exercised themselves, and throw up just to maintain a certain weight level. In schools, girls are teased every day or bullied about one part of their appearance or another. Things have gotten so bad that some girls do result in committing suicide or overworking themselves. Everyone comes in different shapes and sizes, if it was meant for everyone to be one size; clothes will mostly come in one size. Since this is not true, everyone should love their size and who they are. In this poem, Marge Piercy uses symbols to describe what the ideal female should look like. One of the symbols she uses is “a turned-up putty nose.” A turned-up putty nose can be described as a cosmetic perfect nose. The author also uses “dressed in a pink and white nightie.” This best describes a Barbie doll, which is plastic and perfect. Some Barbie dolls come in pretty pink and white night gowns.