Anorexic Eavan Boland Analysis

We are all pressured by society’s standards. Society thinks people who are not thin are unattractive or flawed more than someone who is “ideal” or “beautiful.” Eavan Boland 's poem “Anorexic” is no exception to the rule of society. In fact, the poem is a great example of how society can affect a person. A lot of Boland’s poems used to be politics, but she switched to feminism. A lot of her poems scream at society for the way you have to look to be accepted by society.Society emphasizes the need to be stick thin in order to fit in. With this being said it puts girls at risk to be anorexic because they want to please society and fit in with their peers. In the poem, Boland references Adam and Eve to bring religion into the picture. Religion has a big part in the poem because it causes a lot of guilt in the speaker. The poem “Anorexic by Eavan Boland is based on a girl who struggles with self-inflicted starvation. In the poem, Boland explains how religion creates guilt leading to the person struggling with anorexia and also to struggle with self-image.

In religion they expect you to follow and look like everyone else that follows that religion. Whether you want to or not you believe it, they are strict on what you wear, and who you hang out with. In her, criticism Hill states “But the final two adjectives are “fat and greed”—doleful reminders that the anorexic speaker loathes the idea of intimate pleasure, especially from inside a body she abhors” (12).Boland’s“Anorexic” is a great example of how religion is able to push someone to their breaking point trying to “fit in” with what the church wants. Boland states “Caged so/ I will grow/ angular and holy/ past pain,/ keeping his heart/ such company” (31-39). .”She wants to be perfect like Eve in order to be closer to Adam. She does not see that she is beautiful and would rather focus on being