The Youngest Doll

In the last stanza of the poem the Doll addresses the reader, stating “my hair was golden, my eyes were blue And I had a dress with flowers and all” (Lines 12-13). Having gold hair, blue eyes, and a dress are favorable traits looking at the poem with a Modern Lens. The Doll also mentioned of its sprig of cherries in its hat, mentioning all of the positive qualities of its outfit. An opponent might argue that being in the first person, the story is full of biases. Although the reader will never know what color the Doll is or if it is a missing piece the reader has to connect the dots. The Doll was repaired and thought it was only important to mention its hair, eyes, and clothing. It is important to remember the Doll didn’t mention any of the visible repairs which may have lowered its worth based on appearance.

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.

     It is my opinion that Prager has failed in her attempts to persuade the reader that Barbie is a tool created from male fantasy or a poster child for modern feminism. If anything this essay has helped me to realize that Barbie is a combination of both worlds. She is both sexually appealing to men and someone that women can admire and even a toy that little girls can play with and hope to be like when they are older. I still remain adamantly devoted to my Barbie dolls, seeing her as neither temptress or sexually frustrated object.

This goes on to show that the narrator (who expresses herself as young, poor girl) does not have any women in her family and Lucy is someone she can run to and be her female barrier through life, as a sister which she says, “And we look at each other, our arms gummy from Popsicle we split, we could be sisters right?(5)”.Relating to she wants so much to be close to this girl, and she imagines them as sisters. In addition to, there are no male presence around except for her brothers which makes her feel like she can not relate to “their”world. Another reference of identity is in the story “Barbie-Q”, the little girl is playing with Barbie dolls with her friend, and the barbie dolls are very basic with not much clothing. Moreover, there is no “Ken” Barbie dolls around either. This compares that there is no masculinity as well as how poor these two girls are since the dolls only have few clothing. As a result, these girls have to share . Before long, they have an opportunity to buy some barbie dolls when there is a sale on burnt dolls due to warehouse that caught on fire. “And if the prettiest doll, Barbie's MOD'ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left foot melted a little—so?”(16). The girls do not care or take notice to the damage, they are grateful for what they have.

This is an example of Cisneros childhood and wanted the reader of this short story to understand that growing up with little wasn’t always the worst (Frever 126). While at the flea market the two young girls finally get what they wanted the most, they end up getting all the Barbies they ever could want. This occurs when a warehouse full of barbies burnt down and somewhere salvageable after. The two girls are incredibly excited about their “new dolls”. However, the dolls aren’t in the best condition. One the girls go on to say that they smelled like “smoke” and were “soaked” in water (Cite). The two girls are described by Cisneros in this situation as grateful for getting these “new” dolls (Cite) . Also she wanted the reader to understand and take in that society wants women to have a perfect body, clothes and hair, which is conveyed through the description of the dolls not being in the condition they were bought in. Cisneros wanted to demonstrate throughout “Barbie-Q” the ideal image of women in society. By exposing the fact of being materialistic and perfect like a Barbie doll isn’t how real young women are. Also by expressing the fact that everyone doesn’t grow up with lots of money and that women come in a

This marking period, I will be doing my Literary Letter on “The Youngest Doll” by Rosario Ferre. Out of all the short stories that we have already read, this one has the most meaning and makes the most sense to me. In every story there is conflict whether it is internal or external. In this tale the main conflict had been a character vs character which is external. It had been the Aunt vs the doctor. The Aunt had gotten a prawn stuck into her leg and it started to live inside of her calf. This had been a big problem and she went to the doctor to get it checked out. This is when the doctor lies and he had told her it was nothing. By saying this it made the Aunt think it wasn’t much and that she would be okay in the end. The scab then wouldn’t heal and the doctor had been making money through all of this. This conflict was resolved unhappily as the Aunts youngest turns out to marry the man who lied to her for these years.

Children’s child play has become a form of an unrealistic world. Although, it is considered for children to begin creating a creative imagination, the mind fascinates children into toys. Some child’s play toys are not ideal for young children, like the one and only “Barbie”. Barbie has become a worldwide toy product for children all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. These dolls have emerged from one ethnicity to another. In Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Differences” the author talks about the race and gender differences; found in Barbie. She argues; “Is Barbie bad?” her response, was “Barbie is just a piece of plastic” (459). In contrast, this piece of plastic is not just a piece of plastic to young girls; it is much more than that. A piece of plastic that little girls all over the world wish they could be. Even though, it is only a piece of plastic to adults that Barbie significantly means nothing to them. Growing up, I owned a couple of Barbie dolls. The tall, long blond hair, blue-eyed doll was my best friend and my “role model”. I wanted to become exactly like Barbie. As a child, I thought only beautiful people who looked liked Barbie signified beauty. To my little to no knowledge, I soon came to find out no one really looks like Barbie, except people who want to become like Barbie. In my adolescent years, no one taught me Barbie was “unreal”; no one taught me it was just a figure in my imagination.

The creation of the doll child had been a simple pastime at first, as an immortal with nothing better to do, her maker simply toiled away with the lush ochre dust of the Earth beneath her ivory feet, with the clarion water from the ever bubbling stream - slender fingers molding, crafting, grasping upon the threads of little

Simon Stephens’ modern adaption of the 1879 play by Henrik Ibsin, A Doll’s House, has allowed for audiences to experience the intense play in modern times. With Carrie Cracknell’s effective use of realism conventions and elements of drama, she has successfully displayed themes of deception to the audience. The play follows the story of Nora Helmer, and all the interactions between 6 other characters that follow while she maintains a major secret from her husband Torvald. The director demonstrates combined use of elements of drama along with realism conventions to effectively portray the themes of betrayal such as roles and relationships, use of the fourth wall, and personal objects. Her effective use of these conventions has led to a brilliant adaption of the classic play A Doll’s House.

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer is a traditional “angel in the house” she is a human being, but first and foremost a wife and a mother who is devoted to the care of her children, and the happiness of her husband. The play is influenced by the Victorian time period when the division of men and women was evident, and each gender had their own role to conform to. Ibsen’s views on these entrenched values is what lead to the A Doll’s House becoming so controversial as the main overarching theme of A Doll’s House is the fight for independence in an otherwise patriarchal society. This theme draws attention to how women are capable in their own rights, yet do not govern their own lives due to the lack of legal entitlement and

In the play, “A Doll House,” written in 1879, the main character is a doll for her husband and for her father. She realizes that when living with her father, she would develop the same opinions as him, and stifle her own opinion if it differed from his. Her father even called her his doll child. She, Nora, also becomes aware that he played with

This gender inequality and objectification of Nora demonstrates her role as a doll in her doll’s house. Nora comes to terms with her role as a doll. Nora is more intelligent than Torvald thinks, and she realizes her subordinate role quickly. “A Doll’s House” is also a fitting title because of Nora’s development as a character to realize her role as a

One more female character in a Doll’s house that holds a sacrificial role is Anne-Marie, or the nanny. Although not much is said about her, she shares the same role as the other female characters in the play. Due to her not having a wealthy dad or husband, Anne-Marie was forced to leave her daughter to take care of the Helmer’s children. In this time period, leaving ones family and children was unheard of and frowned upon, so the decision to abandon her child in order to support herself, must have been really difficult.

A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the

Katherine Mansfield's "The Dolls House" seems to be a simple story about children receiving a own ideas and opinions. Even though everyone is entitled to their own opinion it is often bizarre to see how our opinions are based on those of others. This essay will outline the events that occurred in the story which are a big part in regards to the two different worlds of adults and children, and how they are separated from each other.