Expectations Of Women In Society In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

In the poem “Barbie Doll”, written by Marge Piercy, there is a clear theme of the expectations of women in society. The poem starts by talking about a girl that was normal until she was judge when she hit puberty for having, “A great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 533). This comment follows her for the rest of her life, until it is implied that she could no longer take the harsh criticism she felt from the world “her good nature wore out”, and because of this, she committed suicide “she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up” (Piercy 534). Finally when she dies, everyone comments how pretty she looks, and the poem finishes with, “To every woman a happy ending” (Piercy 534). This line summarizes the theme that the poem was trying

Much like the first poem I chose, this piece deals with the way women are treated in society, and has an overlying theme of the suffering women endure when in an abusive marriage. At the beginning of the piece, readers are shown that Aunt Jennifer is stitching a piece of embroidery. Her designs are tigers, as the title of the poem suggests, but it is interesting to note that these tigers, “do not fear the men beneath the tree/ they pace in sleek chivalric certainty” (Rich 531). This is in contrast to Aunt Jennifer, who is described later in the story as having, “the massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band” on her finger. This immediate imagery shows that it is a burden, or something that weighs upon Aunt Jennifer, to be married to her husband. Later in the story, the author continues by stating that “her terrified hands will be/ still ringed with the ordeal she was mastered by” (Rich 531). The word that stands out the most in this phrase is terrified- showing us that it was most likely an abusive marriage between Jennifer and her spouse. When the author references Aunt Jennifer’s embroidery as the conclusion of the poem, it is showing how they continue to live on, “proud and unafraid” (Rich 531). This only furthers the point that Aunt Jennifer was trapped in a marriage where the males were the ones left with their pride and their confidence, whereas the women

This poem is a sharp contrast to the one that I first chose to read, and has a more somber theme to it. The theme that I saw most displayed in this poem was that although your life may not make a huge difference to the world, your life could make a huge difference to one person. The woman described in the poem was, “A Maid whom there were none to praise/ and very few to love” (Wordsworth 491). This woman was beautiful, describe as, “A violet by a mossy stone”, but few people loved her and so when she died, no one was around to care except the narrator. When she died, the narrator sums up his feelings by saying, “But she is in her grave, and, oh/ the difference is to me!” (Wordsworth 491). He clearly loved this girl, and when she died, his world was turned upside down. My question about the poem is why he does not refer to her by name at the beginning of the poem, and instead waits until the