Essays on Marge Piercy

It is true that women have always been suffering from the burden of being perfect. In fact, the standards for women have always been very high. They are supposed to be beautiful and intelligent. Their manners and behavior should always be perfect. Women should always be ideal wives and ideal mothers. Unfortunately, but some people rarely think about women’s inner state, their emotions and feelings. Such issue is expressed in the poems “Barbie Doll” and “Daystar” written by Marge Piercy and Rita Dove correspondently. In her poem “Barbie Doll” Marge Piercy describes the way the society treats women. ...

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy Hunter

The theme of the poem “Barbie Doll” is the narrow definition of femininity in the 1970’s American society. The poem is written in a free verse style. The sound of the poem is more like that of a story. Since the writer is telling us, what is essentially, a modern fairy tale; the free verse style keeps the poem focused on the story of the girl child. This helps avoid any distraction, that would be created if the poet employed any sophisticated poetic devices.

The themes of the poem include (1) perception of girl/women in the 1970’s American society. (2) Appearances

The poem goes on to describe, how a girl child was expected to be ...

Sylvia Plath and Marge Piercy can be considered as two outstanding feminist American writers. Plath is famous as a poet, novelist and short story writer who married the famous poet, Ted Hughes. She is the commencer of the conventional poetry and has composed many poems during her life time. Piercy is the novelist and the social campaigner who can be regarded as a significant female voice. “Lady Lazarus” and “Barbie Doll” are the two exceptional poems written by Sylvia Plath and Marge Piercy respectively. “Lady Lazarus”, taken from the collection of poems Ariel, is famously known as the Holocaust ...

“Barbie Doll” and “Lady Lazarus” are two powerful and exceptional poems written by two celebrated poets from America. Marge Piercy and Sylvia Plath excellently portray the position occupied by women in society, but in extremely diverse ways.

A Critical Analysis of “Barbie Doll”

“Barbie Doll” is the outstanding poem by Marge Piercy, the American feminist poet, who excellently depicts the predicament of women and the abuse of women by the patriarchal society. Barbie dolls bring in the image of the cute and attractive toy girls. Every Baby girl child is born like Barbie dolls that have unrealistically perfect blonde hair, body and belongings. But whether ...

The twentieth century was a background for developing various movements. A splash of feministic ideas happened in 1970s that gave rise to feministic literature. Marge Piercy is one of the most vivid representatives of the approach. Being a social activist she could not but highlighted a theme of inequality between men and women. Unhappy marriage and hardships of her adult life found their place in novels and poetry. ‘What’s that smell in the kitchen’ is one of the brightest examples of the challenge Piercy posed to the traditional way of American life. Life of middle-class families, being the most ...

In this essay we analyze the poem; secretary chant written by Marge Piercy (Meyer 744). Notably, Marge Piercy uses whimsical metaphor in the whole poem to make the audience understand that the worker is a woman who is in an occupation that makes her feel like a machine with just a single purpose in life. Marge Piercy has written this poem in a simple and lucid style that emphasizes playful bizarre; however, in some ways it uses depressing metaphors to depict how the secretary frequently feels dehumanized. Marge Piercy conjures up explicit mental image of a female character with no personal identity but lives ...

Beauty in American culture is stereotyped on certain physical attributes. Absence of these attributes on an individual condemns them as ugly. Marge Piercy in the poem “Barbie Doll” singles out a girl who in spite of possessing immense intelligence, health, strong arms and back, “abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” was condemned as ugly because she had a “fat nose and thick legs”. Height and specifically being tall is perceived as part of physical beauty and a lot of importance is attached to this. Marge Piercy in the poem “a work of Artifice” focuses on the diminutive bonsai tree. She terms it as “ ...

Introduction:

‘Suburban by John Ciardi’ and ‘The Secretary Chant’ by Mage Piercy are poems which are full of life experiences and are also replete with satire. This analysis attempts to convey certain messages and subtle lines which demonstrate that they are truly poems of the world. "Suburban" by John Ciardi ,

“Yesterday Mrs. Friar phoned."Mr. Ciardi,

how do you do?" she said. "I am sorry to say this isn't exactly a social call. The fact is a large repulsive object in my petunias."

John Ciardi’s poem focuses on some intriguing aspects especially with regard to some sexual orientations especially with the parallel between a girl ...