Theme Of Barbie Doll And The Death Of Marilyn Monroie

There is a fine distinction in the fabric of DNA that separates men and women- one has the opportunity to give life and one does not. Although beneath skin and flesh is the foundation of a body, the bones. What every human being also shares with each other is the ability to cast emotions. However throughout history, men have been brought up to be seen as if they have little to no feelings at all and women are to be too emotional. Everyone has the potential to feel pain at some point in their lives. Objectification is the central concept dear to feminist thinkers. Many think that objectification is something that remains in history, but it continues to be a problem in modern society. F. Scott Fitzgerald applies this to the characters in his book: The Great Gatsby. The underlying theme of the podcast: Relationship Radio dealt with the objectification of human beings. Aidan Buckner, Olivia Lujan, and Penelope Tucker’s three podcasts: You Can Buy Me Love, Daisy, Money and Usage, and Puppy Love tie the notion of objectification through the relationships: Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, George and Myrtle Wilson, and Tom and Myrtle Wilson through the book The Great Gatsby.

Both of these poems portray two views of individuals by society. The girl in The Barbie Doll was healthy and intelligent, yet everyone still focused on her fat legs and big nose. This led the girl to do as much as she could to please those around her. This outlook can be compared to how women are portrayed in our society today. As we, women, look through magazines we are greeted by tiny women with big chests. Some of us feel that this is the way all women should look. Those who feel this way will do all that they can do to look like these models. Many women in our society are anorexic and bulimic, could this be because of society's portrayal of women? I believe so.

Both poems portray similar traits that relate to death; however, they are vastly different from one another. The “Barbie Doll” poem initially starts off on a positive note just as “The Leap” does. “The Leap” depicts Jane MacNaughton as an adolescent at first, and then progressing to her adulthood. “Barbie Doll” is similar except that it is depicted in the opposite time frame that “The Leap” is depicted in. The girl child with “Barbie Doll” is a young child because she is portrayed as playing with dolls and miniature stoves and irons. These items are reminiscent of early childhood toys, whereas Jane from “The Leap” is portrayed in an adolescent setting because she is depicted as the fastest runner in the seventh grade. The girl child within “Barbie Doll” suffers complications from her plastic surgery, which leads to a bittersweet ending. Jane MacNaughton on the other hand suffers an untimely death because she commits suicide from leaping from a window. Jane’s death was intentional, whereas the “Barbie Doll” death was not intentional, and

Poets, Judith Wright, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickenson all express their views on life and death, however, do so in varying manners. Through imagery, Wright and Plath both consider life’s beginnings, however, Wright considers it to be a beautiful gift, whereas Plath views birth as an empty burden. Subsequently, through structure Dickenson and Wright each acknowledge life, expressing how in some cases it is difficult, yet in other circumstances it is celebrated. Finally, through tone, Dickenson and Plath convey their views on death, yet differ in that Plath believes it is purifying and holds a sick fascination with it, while Dickenson instead holds a unique curiosity about it. Therefore, whilst each poet recognises the journey of birth,

The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the

Oates’ “Three Girls” tells the story of two “girl-poets” in the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan on a snowy day in March of 1956. They wander through the aisles of poetry, with commentary about various poets and collections of poetries and how they reflected on the “girl-poets”. “We were girl-poets passionately enamored of T.S. Eliot but scornful of Robert Frost, whom we’d been made to memorize in high school-Slyly we communicated in code phrases from Eliot in the presence of obtuse others in our dining hall and residence.” (Oates, 92) Suddenly she is pulled from her thoughts, as her friend touches her wrist and guides her further into the store to stumble upon Marilyn Monroe. From here, the “girl-poets” follow her discretely, with a commentary of how Monroe’s discretion was so much different form how she was normally seen. She was, at that moment, not a “garnish blond showgirl”, but rather “this woman was an individual wholly absorbed in selecting, leafing through, pausing to read books” (Oates, 93) They continue to follow her until she reaches the storefront, where they volunteer to pay for her books to keep the secret of her being here. From there they return her books to her outside, with her gifting them the “Selected Poems of Marianne Moore” before departing. The story closes with the two “girl-poets” sharing their first kiss.

these poems follow each other in society that exists even today. As a society, we select who we look up to and who we view as everything. It is from these celebrities that society learns what is beautiful and girls like in Barbie Doll don’t fit in. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs, In the end, neither of these characters win. They both have their own pressures, brought on by the society they live in. These problems still pervade in our society today. These two poems show that across the board, anyone can feel pressured into committing suicide. It doesn’t matter of the age, gender, or how much money we have everyone can be screwed up. This often is the pressures and expectations of society to be perfect like in Barbie Doll, or the man who everyone wants to be. The American dream is to be rich and famous, to have everyone want to be you. The nightmare of the situation is that you still won’t be happy once you reach this goal. In the same way trying to change something about yourself like the way you look it will lead you to never be happy as you are. There will always be something to change. These poems express that the higher you are placed on a scale

A little girl’s world begins as such a wonderful place. Makeup, dresses, tea parties and prince charming are what little girls dream of. Marge Piercy uses a variety of poetic devises to convey the theme of stereotypes and the struggle girls face is brought to attention in this free verse twenty-five-line, open-form narrative poem titled “Barbie Doll.”

In both poems “Barbie Doll’ and “homage to my hips” the speakers focused on the same idea but had different ways of expressing those ideas. In the poem “Barbie Doll” written by Marge Piercy shows how a young girl is affected by the idea of a “perfect” body that society thinks a girl should have. A Barbie doll is a toy that young girls play with. Barbie is an unrealistic way of how a young girl should look and can ultimately lower one’s self-esteem. The company that makes Barbie decided that it would be beneficial for young girls to see the different body images one can have. On the other hand, in the poem “homage to my hips” the speaker Lucille Clifton is proud and appreciative of her hips. She is able to go against the standard norm of how society wants girls to look and gives her hips the importance that they are actual people themselves. Although “Barbie Doll” and “homage to my hips” have a similar theme while the poets used a different structure and literary devices to portray how society sees a young girls’ body image.

It is no surprise that Olds picked the star as her focal point of her poem. She has expressed that a large portion of her poems reflect the “painfully ambivalent” memories of her parents (Gale). Olds style is also built on the intimate details of her life concerning her children, and controversially, her sex life (Poetry Foundation). It is also hinted at that she has suffered sexual abuse. Though not identical, Old’s can connect with Monroe’s bringing up, which is why it is no surprise she has picked Monroe as her focal point. Olds had previously commented on her style saying, “My work is not hard to understand because I am not a thinker … I write the way I perceive” (Poetry Foundation). This simply means that she writes what she thinks and what she believes needs to be said. This style of writing is shown in “The Death of Marilyn Monroe” by proving how men sexualize women in

Introduction: Conflicting perspectives are different points of view expressed and influenced by ones context and values. “Birthday Letters” by Ted Hughes is an anthology of poems challenging the accusation that he was responsible for his wife, Sylvia Plath’s death. The three poems The Minotaur, Your Paris, and Red are an insight into Hughes justification of the death of Plath using a very subjective and emotive poetic form. The poems possess many deliberate techniques such as extended metaphors, connotations, diction and juxtaposition to encourage the audience to accept his argument that he was not the one to blame for this world renown tragedy. The poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath also displays conflicting perspectives of the

The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy in relation to diversity alludes to specific aspects of gender, mainly targeting the female gender perspective and expectations. In the poem, Piercy is writing about a young girl transitioning from a child to a women and how society and its idea of beauty affects her. My interpretation of the poem is that the girl is basically crying out for help saying look I am healthy, intelligent, and strong but no one sees or cares about those things because the only thing they see when they look at her is her outside appearance and what society considers to be the flaws that she possesses. Although this was written in 1936 Piercy accurately describes the feeling of being defined or constricted by society to think, act, and look a particular way which is similar to that of todays society which is fueled by social media, where some find personal gratification and self confidence fueled from likes and retweets they receive.” Barbie doll “ is the perfect title for this poem because for the longest time a Barbie was a sign of something perfect and beautiful, a toy enjoyed by everyone and a conventional symbol for little girls all over the United States. Similarly the girl was conforming to be sort of like the Barbie doll in a way because of societal expectations and the want to be viewed in a particular light by ones peers.

Marge Percy “Barbie Doll” is a social commentary about the demanding pressures that the mass media produces about how women should look like and what type of body they should have. Women in the 1970s faced high standards and these standards still go on to this day. These high demands lead women to go above and beyond to meet standards that society has placed upon them. Some of these drastic measures can lead to consequences. In “Barbie Doll” the main character decided to undergo plastic surgery to fix her “big nose” and “fat legs”. Unfortunately she ended up dying in her struggle to meet the standard that the media has placed on her at an exceptionally young age. Her untimely death is a symbol and the theme of the poem that these women will work themselves to death to meet societies demands and most of the time it is all for nothing. All this women wanted was people to accept the way she looked and not critique her looks and it was not until her funeral day, when it no longer mattered, that she finally got that acceptance.

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne Sexton (1928-1974) both explored similar themes such as tone, structure, and symbolism. Many of their poems were cries for help, which resulted into metal illness, depression, and suicide. In 1958, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath met, and much to their surprise had a few things in common. They both were fascinated with death and suicide. Both Sexton’s and Plath’s poetry are considered as confessional poetry in which they were very honest, depressed, and had suicidal or homicidal tendencies. Sylvia and Anne’s views on what happened in their life and on independence, are what nearly separates them from other confessional poets. Sexton and Plath’s poetry range over a variety of topics such as death, suicide, rage, and mourning. They both utilize a convincing use of symbolism, deep image, metaphors, and soul-searching. Plath’s “The Colossus”, “Full Fathom Five”, “Daddy”, and Sexton’s “And one for My Dame” and “All My Pretty Ones”, are very enraged and different feminist perspectives, giving different views on the relationships with a father and a husband.

In conclusion, both women were measured by their beauty and represented little else but their physical appearances. Obviously both poems were written in a male dominated era where women’s only role was to be beautiful, caring and kind. However, the similarity of the two separates at how they were represented by their admirers. The unknown woman had an obvious beauty; though it was beauty with a difference. Lucy, however, was a hidden beauty that needed to be