In poem the imagery job was to put reader in the shoe of the young white narrator. Imagery allowed reader to come to a conclusion of why would narrator think like she did. An example of this were in line nine through ten, where narrator claimed that IQ the African American man had a casual, cold, alertness in his eye as if he planned to may her. Another examples is line twenty six through thirty one, as she explained how man can break her back like a stick maybe for vengeance on people that are breaking his.…
The girl apologizes for not being what they want her to be and she tries to change herself into what they would like. The poem says “She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle,” this explains that she tries her hardest to change herself and fit in. Eventually she figures out that no matter how hard she tries she still can not become what they want of her. Imagery is shown by the standards of the people and that the Barbie doll is not a real person and no one can live up to her, but they have not realized that.…
“Beauty. At the mention of this word, most girls are inclined to take a quick look into a compact mirror or run a few fingers through their hair, sizing themselves up with the nearest advertisement featuring a flawless bottle blonde” (Katie Atkinson). Women are willing to spend hours in the bathroom to be prepared for the day to look like a model when only traveling to the corner store is a real fascination. Most would not even walk out of the house without makeup on in fear they will be judged by their appearance. The short story, Barbie Q written by Sandra Cisneros, also shows the concept of girls trying to be “perfect.” It shows two girls trying to dress up their dolls to look high class. They spend so much money on clothing, shoes, and accessories, even though they come from a low income family, just to make their dolls look their best. The girls show the true meaning of someone being materialistic. When society focuses on the image of the next Barbie, women aren’t realizing how that’s changing themselves physically and emotionally just to live up to that expectation.…
I’ll admit it; I absolutely loved playing with Barbie’s as a child! I must have had like twenty of them. She had everything: a dream house, Ken, plenty of friends, and a slender body with all the right curves, everything I dreamed of having when I grew up. “En Garde, Princess!” by Mary Grace Lord, challenges why every girl loves Barbie. Her article appeared in the online magazine Salon under the “Mothers Who Think” department on October 27, 2000, before the launch of a new doll line called the Get Real Girls, which were created by Julz Chavez. In this article Lord uses repetition, ethos, comparison and name calling to convince the reader that Barbie will soon encounter a fierce competitor, a better role model, which may finally dethrone her as the best selling doll of all time, or at least “punch a few holes in her sales” (423).…
The author employs imagery throughout the poem by pairing vivid colors with other characters and figures to contribute to a more complex meaning. This visual imagery is found in line 3 when the speaker described…
This is where imagery plays a great role in this poem, because it helps the reader make a visual representation of what is happening in the poem. For example, “he has the casual cold look of a mugger”, this is meant…
The Poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is about a girl who struggles with her body image. The speaker in the poem acts as an observer; watching the girl encounter different experiences as it related to her body image. Today’s generation is much similar to the life of the girl in this poem. Girls are forced to keep up with rising standards that are overwhelming and destructive. This poem uses form, imagery, and word choice to express how society chooses not to accept girls who do not represent the “ideal” woman.…
In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy the struggle many young girl nowadays face is portrayed.…
Blonde hair, blue eyes, business woman, rock star, princess and doctor, can you guess who? It’s Barbie. To be beautiful is to possess qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction, and for most, Barbie is the epitome of beauty. For years Barbie has been a doll that has been living in the hands of girls of all ages. Some girls start getting Barbies as young as three years old and continue to collect these dolls sometimes into early adulthood. But are these dolls a positive influence on young girls? Barbie is harmful because she gives a false perception of beauty that effects the self esteem, health, and ethnic concerns of young girls.…
Society's idea to be attractive is to be nothing less than ideal. To lack perfection is not acceptable in society. Also society tells people how to dress and act, having people be and look a certain way to be accepted. The desire to be accepted can destroy ones’ self-esteem and many lose sight of their own true beauty. Many will do whatever it takes to not be, say, or do what society thinks is disturbing. Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll,” written in 1973, is a powerful poem about society’s pressure on a young woman. The name carries a lot of meaning because a Barbie doll has long been an icon in society. Although it is a children’s toy, a Barbie doll demonstrates a woman with a perfect body and pure beauty. The poem portrays a summary of a life since birth to the end of life at a funeral. The main character in the poem never has a chance to live life to the fullest because she is always trying to please others and be accepted, which leads to a life of unhappiness. Piercy uses form, diction, and imagery throughout the poem to help imagine the “perfect” woman in the eye of society and the price one may be willing to pay.…
Society tells us what we should be, who we should be, what we should look and act like and what is perfect. Too many woman try to fit this ideal of what we should be based on media and society in an imperfect world. Marge Piercy is criticizing this in her poem “Barbie doll”. The poem shows how ridiculous it is the way we try to conform to what society’s ideals are for the perfect woman.…
In the past, women were always considered the subordinate gender that was expected to powder their nose and stay at home to be a homemaker. Even now, despite the movement to liberate women from stereotypical gender roles, women are still seen as the inferior gender that is discriminated against in society. As suggested by the popular Barbie doll created by Mattel, the idealized image of a woman in our patriarchal society is one who takes care of the home and is flawlessly beautiful with perfect skin, long legs, small waist, and slender figure. The Barbie doll is used as a tool for patriarchy in that it reinforces the notion that women should be domestic workers and maintain a feminine outer appearance. Also, patriarchal values affect girls starting at a young age as they unconsciously begin to believe that Barbie is what a woman should look and be like. With the appeal and popularity of this doll for the past several years, it is difficult to alter the notions of womanhood suggested by this doll. This implies that patriarchy is something we can not permanently overthrow because it is so deeply rooted in our society.…
In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll,” a narrator tells the story of a young girl and her struggles to accept herself as she succumbs to bullying. In the poem, there are many examples of literary devices. Among the literary devices, denotation and connotation are used often. Denotation, or a literal meaning of a word or phrase is exemplified in the line “she was healthy, tested intelligent” (line 7). This line truly has only one meaning and the words can be taken in a literal context. The line is stating that the girl in the poem was smart and healthy and it’s very difficult to read any more into the line. Connotation is another literary device used in the poem. The lines “So she cut off her nose and her legs/ And offered them up” (lines 17 and 18) are good examples of connotation because the lines could be interpreted in multiple ways. While some may think of cosmetic procedures, others can view these lines as a…
In “Barbie Doll”, Piercy uses a multitude of symbols to relate to the reader. The most poignant being the abstraction of a Barbie doll figure. Barbie dolls in society are looked at as a sense of perfection that is unrealistic and unachievable, creating an insecurity in the realm of teenage girls, respectively. The girl throughout the poem deals with the constant struggles that comes with being a girl in society. A classmate of the girl tells her “you have a great big nose and fat legs.” (line 6) At a young age it is indoctrinated in the brains of children to criticize others. Beginning the poem, the words “girlchild” (line 1) appear bringing the idea that she is still a child but must maintain a certain dynamic that falls within being a female in the world. Also within the same few lines are the words “as usual” (line 1) followed by “miniature GE stoves and irons”…
The young girl in the story is constructing her entire identity on the ideal body of her Barbie Doll, in which her future step-mother is compared to. The line, “Barbie was sex without sex”, suggests that the girl is being inculcated with the idea that her self-worth is dependent upon her beauty as a sex object. Real girls should have many other things on their minds other than their body and sex such as school, friends, and family; but these other points are completely absent from the story. The girl explains that her new barbie was “who [she] wanted to be”, with the idealistic figure of having “torpedo breasts, the wasp waist, [and the] tall-drink-of-water-legs”. The bodies of dolls are negatively impacting young girls to make the wrong decisions regarding their bodies; this is where eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia originate. Despite the girl’s dead mother prohibiting her from having the doll given by her stepmother, she decided to take it in and let it have an influence on her instead. In addition, the girl’s future stepmother is described as having “auburn curls bouncing in the early May light…[and a] suit of fuchsia wool blooming like some exotic flower” The imagery and the simile used in this excerpt are portraying some perfect female form that’s not usually attainable. The focus on the physical features in both the doll and the stepmother strengthen the message in the young girl’s mind that her worth is proportional to her physical beauty. The story reaches the point where the desire for the idealistic female body is so strong in the young girl that it overpowers the respect she has for her dead mother’s memory, and so she accepts the new barbie doll from the stepmother. By doing this, she may be losing respect, in the long run, not only for her dead mother but also for…