Analyzing The Poem 'The Fall Of A Little Wild Goose'

Women rather than finding faults amongst men have learned to pit themselves against other women, rather than uniting and fighting for the same cause, which is emphasized through extended metaphors about social constructs. In “To the tune “The Fall of a Little Wild Goose” Huang E writes “a bullet struck the female/Mandarin duck. The music/Of jade zither was forgotten,” this showcases how the speaker’s post marital happiness is lost because she finally sees the reality of her entrapment. The woman was “shot” when she found out her husband slept with another woman, suggesting that she has lost her meaning to live. Likewise, the last stanza of the poem states “that insufferable little bitch/with her coy tricks! /…This old witch can still/make a furious scene.” Huang E implies
that the older woman is not going to allow the younger woman, the “whore” to continue sleeping with her husband.
However, rather than punishing the man she married she will seek revenge on the younger woman. Metaphorically this suggests that the patriarchy is so deeply rooted in our society that women have reached the point where the begin to hate each other, rather than the men who start the problems. Blythe Baird parallels Huang E by stating “how could I not fall in love with my illness? /With becoming the kind of silhouette people are supposed to fall in love with?” Through this extended metaphor about social constructs Baird emphasizes the true depths of body shaming. Baird delves into her own self-hate for her body, in an interview stating “when I was 15, I went to rehab and bullshitted my way through it. I was hell bent on going back to starving myself the minute I got out” (Latifi). Only further showcasing how this disorder began to control her life and that the only way to feel loved was to remain the ideal shaped woman society idolized. Continuing Baird writes “when I was little, someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said “small.” Further highlighting how society instills body shaming into our youth, only showcasing skinny women on TV, living a life of luxury, full
of success. The poem highlights through extended metaphors about social constructs how the journey from a harmful mindset, that led to a teenager developing an eating disorder, to a young woman looking back on her past, realizing the true issue never lied within herself, but with those around her and society. Likewise, in an interview Baird states “I was initially enchanted with poetry because I saw it as a radical form of healing. I was empowering,” thus highlighting how rather than this poem solely being a reflection on her own life, it is a metaphor to young girls across the world. The poem emphasizes that self-love is valuable and that the criticism people give you in the long run becomes pointless. Baird writes “this was the year of eating when I was hungry without pushing myself,” emphasizing how Baird learned to love herself, unchaining herself from social constructs, finally being free to be herself, not what everyone else wants her to be. Both poems utilize extended metaphors pertaining to social constructs for women in order to highlight the stigmatize women face and that if you are not careful it can destroy your life.