Marge Piercy describes in her poem “Barbie Doll” the struggles girls have to face when they hit puberty and how far the girls would go to change their appearance in order to feel pretty. The poem starts of with a girl being born and how they are given girly toys. The time where appearance does not matter until the day the girl hits puberty. In the lines 5-6 “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs” mostly means that when girls reach puberty this is when everything else about the girl do not matter besides their appearance. That nobody sees a girl for her intelligence, strong personality, and even her health. That other girls or students will only notice her for her big nose or fat legs. In the poem the girl is “advised to play coy, exhorted to come one hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle”(Stanza 3). When her body could not take it anymore she cut off her nose and her legs. When the girl lies in her casket all the guest think she looks pretty. Her death is not the reason they call her pretty, but because the girl finally got what she thought she needed. She received that perfect nose she never
Marge Piercy describes in her poem “Barbie Doll” the struggles girls have to face when they hit puberty and how far the girls would go to change their appearance in order to feel pretty. The poem starts of with a girl being born and how they are given girly toys. The time where appearance does not matter until the day the girl hits puberty. In the lines 5-6 “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs” mostly means that when girls reach puberty this is when everything else about the girl do not matter besides their appearance. That nobody sees a girl for her intelligence, strong personality, and even her health. That other girls or students will only notice her for her big nose or fat legs. In the poem the girl is “advised to play coy, exhorted to come one hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle”(Stanza 3). When her body could not take it anymore she cut off her nose and her legs. When the girl lies in her casket all the guest think she looks pretty. Her death is not the reason they call her pretty, but because the girl finally got what she thought she needed. She received that perfect nose she never