Long Term Love: A Close Reading Of Linda Pastan's 'Marks'

The Crippling Effects of Long Term Love: A Close Reading of Linda Pastan’s “Marks” using conflict, tone, and criticism

Have you ever gotten a poor grade before, leaving you feeling awful about yourself? Well, the glorification of the grading system is a heavy topic within Linda Pastan’s “Marks”. This poem tells us about how her husband and children grade everything she does, not appreciating her enough, and critiquing her too much. They put pressure on her to be perfect, when she is doing her best. Linda Pastan, in the poem "Marks", uses conflict, a tired tone, and metaphors to express how criticism can affect a person. While conflict isn’t explicitly explained throughout this poem, we can feel it as we read. When the speaker says “My husband gives me an A for last night’s supper, an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed” (1-4), we can feel the tension radiating off the paper. The speaker,

Depending on how you read the poem, you may not hear it at first, but if you read slowly and carefully it is there. The speaker works diligently to keep her house running smoothly for her children and husband, but is not valued or appreciated. We can hear this tiredness in verses like “My son says I am average, an average mother, but if I put my mind to it I could improve” (5-8). The way that the speaker repeats an average mother. She is almost shocked, and angry that this is what her son thinks of her. She is tired of doing all of this work just to be told that she is an average mother. We can also feel this tired tone when talking about her daughter. While her daughter said that she “passed”, she is still not valuing everything the speaker does for her, just saying she is passing by. We can especially hear this anger in the last verse, “Wait ‘til they learn I’m dropping out.” (11-12). She is finally exasperated, and we can hear this through the tones that Linda Pastan weaves through this