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Summary Of Pretty By Katie Makkai

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Gender Issues Poetry Analysis
There has always been discrimination against one group or another. Some of the most prevalent issues are gender based - society places body standards for men and women alike. Katie Makkai’s poem, “Pretty,” paints a vivid picture about such standards through the perspective of a young women. The narrator in the poem is a girl who grows older as the poem progresses who has a mother that is obsessed with body image and it wore off on her daughter. When she was just a young girl, her mother criticized her looks and wanted to have her “imperfections” fixed. She went through plastic surgery on her nose, medication and treatments for her skin, and pulled teeth. The author’s use of repetition and imagery helps to emphasize the gender specific issue that women have to be beautiful. …show more content…

Will I be pretty? Will I be pretty?” the narrator asks her mom. At this time she is only a few years old but continues to ask this question throughout the poem. “Will I be rich? Will I be wanted? Worthy? Pretty?” The repetition of this line “Will I be…?” emphasises her desire to fit the beauty standards that her mom worships. The narrator goes to great lengths in order to accomplish this, and regretted everything, Makkai used very detailed language and personification to create imagery to describe the character’s pain and regrets. One of the more disturbing lines is about the girl after she went through her procedures and digests her own blood that went into her stomach while she was under anesthesia. Following that is the connection to beauty and the pain that comes with it. “...never ending chorus groaning on and on like the IV needle dripping liquid beauty into my

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