Comparison Of Barbie Doll And A Work Of Artifice

Next is about “Barbie Doll” written by Marge Piercy. For generations, every girl have seen and played will Barbie doll and many have always wanted to become just like her: the party girl, career women and the beauty queen all in one. In Marge Piercy’s poem, the title “Barbie Doll” is about a girl who fatally entrapped by society’s idea of every girl should be perfect from head to toes. “In the casket displayed on satin she lay…, dressed in a pink and white nightie.” (Barbie Doll, p522) Piercy uses a girl character and

The Poem “Barbie Doll (1969)” by Marge Piercy describes the life of a young girl who fell victim to society’s idea of beauty. Marge Piercy was a known social activist and uses this poem to bring attention to serious issues facing young females in society. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is a narrative poem; the poem is written in free verse. The author selects a free form of poetry and other devices to help get her point across.

​In either poem, metaphorical symbols and wording can be found. However, in order to understand the real meaning of these metaphorical symbols and wordings, the historical backgrounds of both poems must first be understood. “Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy, was written in the 1970’s, a decade of great importance and progress to the American Woman. The Women’s Rights Movement set prominent changes within society and challenged sexism, legal abortion, equal rights and oppression. In addition, beauty standards were evolving on a social level. The 70’s were known for “thinking thin”, bronzed skin, and big hair. Barbie has always been in the middle of controversy. Marge Piercy uses Barbie in the

The two poems that I chose to write about are “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “homage to my hips” by Lucille Clifton. In Piercy’s biography says, “Her description of the girlchild in ‘Barbie Doll' is a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to herself. Piercy, however, did not sacrifice herself to patriarchy’s image of what an “ideal” woman should be; rather, she made herself into a crusader for women’s rights” ("Barbie Doll" 33). The quote helps me to understand Piercy’s views for this poem. She felt that she did not fit into the image of the perfect women of how society was seeing, but she would not let a man control her life.

Trying to understand where the inspiration for “Barbie Doll came in was not hard to find after only reading a few articles on Marge Piercy. In a recent interview by Bonnie Lyons she was asked, “Is there anything you want to add to what you've already written?”, Piercy responded with, “ I think if you express things vividly, coherently, and passionately, they pass out of the book into life. The problem with a lot of poetry today is that it is just written to be published, to establish someone's credentials. And it reads like that, unfortunately. It isn't memorable, and

An analysis of the literary elements imagery, symbolism, and tone/mood in “Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy and, “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde reveals each character and their struggle with their identity in society.

In Sandra Cisnero’s short story ‘’Barbie-Q,” a Barbie doll is used to portray the author’s inner struggle to achieve perfection, and how her young age and innocence clouds her identity. Throughout the text it is very clear that the author, a young girl, had come from an underprivileged family and faced the issues many families of lower socioeconomic background typically face. In the short story it is also evident that her gender plays a massive role in damaging her self-esteem and confidence, as both the media and the author’s social background have continuously portrayed women as weak, powerless figures. Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” by Annie Chopin, the protagonist, once again a female figure represented the life of domesticity a woman is expected to hold by society. Although Chopin’s story was written in the late 1800s and “Barbie-Q” is a very modern story, both depict the protagonist females as very helpless, incapable figures that trail after the overpowering men.

The dolls of the narrator are chosen to represent her childhood because dolls are a children’s toy and commonly associated with small girls. The fact that these dolls are being put away “like dead children in a chest” show that the narrator is being forced to face reality, as the dolls become children, and that this reality that she is facing has caused the death of her childhood, or the loss of her child innocence. This is further reinforced by the fact that she will “carry this chest with her until she marries”. As the poem progresses the narrator speaks of the “little trickle of blood” that the narrator physically experiences as a women that show she really is going through this loss of her childhood and that she is becoming a women. This shows her full maturity into a woman by the end of the poem when her “she is waiting for each hour to release

The poem “Barbie Doll” represents the struggles of young girl who wants to fit into the ideas of feminine beauty that sets by the society. The poem begins “This girlchild was born as usual” (Piercy Line 1). The author depicts a normal young girl who is healthy, brilliant and plays with doll. In the poem the girl was being bullied by her classmate and told her that that she has a “big nose and fat legs” (Line 6).Then she was advised to go on a diet and exercise .The girl struggles to become what the others want her to be .She feels being unaccepted because of her imperfections. Just like the speaker in the poem “Suicide Note” who struggles to meet her parent’s expectations .Both women can’t handle the pressures sets by others and commit suicide.

“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is about a girl who is a normal child growing up; playing with dolls, miniature kitchen items and pretend make-up. It quickly takes an interesting turn when a pubescent child makes fun of her nose and legs and she was advised to exercise and diet despite the fact that she was intelligent and healthy. The poem continues on by the girl cutting her legs and nose and a bizarre visual of her laying in a casket with an ending that states “to every woman a happy ending”( Piercy 791). This poem was written by Piercy in 1969 a year in which many women liberation groups were forming and the breaking of womanly roles was taking place. The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy,

Social Pressure on the Minds of the Young Society is a powerful thing, it can sway the way people act, dress, speak, think and even eat. In the two poems Woman’s Work by Julia Alvarez and Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy we see how society views have affected two individuals. In Woman’s Work the story is shown through a young girl's point of view as her mother teachers her how she should think and feel about her house and future home when she grows up. Where in Barbie Doll we are shown a girl’s life from an outside perspective as society has pushed its own views and ideas of perfection on to her and its after effects. Both stories had the same underlying them as that society and its view at put upon a child even before they are born and stick with them even in death but the two stories are very different as well as their authors.

Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” is a short poem that focuses on the dramatic internal conflict that women face in their day-to-day lives, the struggle to decide to present themselves as they desire or to decide to present themselves the way society thinks they should. The speaker presents a woman by her natural physical features as well as what society deems to be her “imperfections.” The poet has organized the stanzas of the poem into a timeline of different stages of the girl’s life. However, the poet used no rhyme scheme for this poem; it presents a more straight forward and serious tone for the audience. Using a third-person point of view, the speaker is able to explain the situation as it plays out through the stanzas, which also gives the audience insight that the speaker has witnessed this several times before because he or she does not speak as if they are surprised by the unfolding of these events.

The poem “Barbie Doll” lays out words that support traditional gender roles while also giving the reader a sense of irony by using harsher language to describe events of the woman's life. Certain statements within the text use tender descriptions and stereotypes of females that come into this world, who are naturally expected to wear "cherry candy" colored lipstick and play with "dolls that did pee-pee." These stereotypes extend into womanhood, wherein she is expected to look a certain way, with skinny legs and a small nose. Despite all of the woman's other quality attributes that additionally mold her into who she is, such as her intelligence or strength, she is cast out because she does not fit the mold that of a female, as she is just seen as "a fat nose on thick legs.