Thursday, July 9, 2020
The Miniature Social Values Reflected in Barbie A Critical Reading of Marge Piercyââ¬â¢s Poem Barbie Doll - Literature Essay Samples
Barbie doll as a popular icon in American culture has been carried with a long history. However, it is also a controversial toy that often critic by its unrealistic body image and the women stereotype imposed on her. Marge Piercyââ¬â¢s poem presents the theme about womenââ¬â¢s loss of self-esteem and the coercion of external forces through the Barbie dolls. This paper aims to take a textual analysis of the subject matters and images the authorââ¬â¢s view from a critical perspective. Irony and satiric tone are also used to reinforce the prevailing trend of twisted social and cultural values throughout the poem. Starts with an unfamiliar word ââ¬Å"girlchildâ⬠, the author emphasizes the infantââ¬â¢s biological gender, which seems to degrade oneââ¬â¢s gender identity. The girl was born with nothing especially and received a typical toy, thus leaving she a conventional role and foreseeable prospect of a female character. For example, the doll was carried with ââ¬Å"miniature stovesâ⬠and ââ¬Å"ironâ⬠, symbolizes her domestic roleââ¬âa household worked in the kitchen. Besides, the word ââ¬Å"miniatureâ⬠and ââ¬Å"wee lipsticksâ⬠indicate the ââ¬Å"normalâ⬠image in the adult forces world in miniature. With a potentially patriarchal value, the adult forces women to stay inside, at home or within the restricted space. Then the girl came to puberty, the tone here became sharp and ironic with the word ââ¬Å"magicâ⬠. She was mocked as ââ¬Å"a great big noseâ⬠and ââ¬Å"fat legsâ⬠by her classmates. During the puberty, the girl has posse ssed intelligence and judgement, but most concepts and ideas are derived from the adult. Thus teenagers start to care more about their appearance. Sadly their notion of beauty has been twisted by the conventional values. In the second stanza, the girl grown up mentally and physically, while prejudice or biased views of beauty have changed her thought and influenced her values. The young woman felt a sense of guilt and said apologies about her imperfect appearance. Here we find the poetââ¬â¢s criticism that people tend to prioritize womenââ¬â¢s superficial outlook rather than their intrinsic characteristics. This preconception has ironically forced the young woman to apologize for ââ¬Å"her own mistakeâ⬠. Although both stanzas two and three begin with the subject ââ¬Å"sheâ⬠, the girl characters have been divided into two kinds in her life. In the stanza three, the girl was advised to act as the one in keeping with social value, and became the one who sheââ¬â¢s not. Eventually her good nature was ââ¬Å"worn out like a fan beltâ⬠. The simile here presents an image of a machine with gear, because the girlââ¬â¢s good nature doesnââ¬â¢t work or fit to the machine (social e xpectation). Time after time it was broken apart at all. As critical as the tone goes, the poet moves the poem to a climax: the girl cut off her legs and offered herself up, in order to meet the social conventions. Her good nature depleted, her physical function damaged and she became the victim of the social oppression. It sounds absurd and shocking when the girl mutilated herself. However, this kind of tragedy actually happens in todayââ¬â¢s society as well, for instance, people tend to go through plastic or cosmetic surgery to make themselves look better. In fact, what the poet tries to address to is the issue of social values and its impact on the shaping of the youthââ¬â¢s behavior. In the last stanza, the ââ¬Å"physical mutilatedâ⬠girl lied in the casket with her ââ¬Å"putty noseâ⬠, beautiful make-up and elaborated dressed in ââ¬Å"pink and white nightieâ⬠. She looked pretty in othersââ¬â¢ eyes. It draws readerââ¬â¢s attention that the ââ¬Å"nightieâ⬠here has some sexual metaphors, which implies that the girl was offended even after she was dead. Furthermore, the ââ¬Å"casketâ⬠could be understood as a pun: a coffin to bury the girlââ¬â¢s dead body, or a small case for jewels and other valuables. On one hand, the girl was naturally dead and laid in the casket, the ââ¬Å"stainâ⬠was like a winding sheet to cover her body. On the other hand, she was given a second life with a pretty appearance that meets the social expectation, and she was on display in the casket like a treasure with a satin. At the end, Piercy ironically and sadly creates a fairytale ââ¬Å"happy endingâ⬠: the girl is in such a doll-like creat ure, pretty but lifeless. The author presents that the happy ending is not just for the girl character but for all women as well, as if all women doomed to experience it: willing to become a beauty even at the cost of death. The poem reads like a gothic tale full of sarcasm in a depressing tone. Piercy shares her sharp but sad feeling towards the social pressures on the women with the reader. In the poem we see how the society and family play a dominant role in shaping behavior. Womenââ¬â¢s conventional role, appearance and the ignorance of their intrinsic qualities all have impacted on their growth. Although the narrative in Piercyââ¬â¢s poem reads a bit exaggerated, the similar situation actually continues to happen but in different ways. Thus, Piercyââ¬â¢s poem revokes the readers to re-examine womenââ¬â¢s right in the society which is dominated by the patriarchy, and also driven by the profit.
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