Barbie Doll And No Goodbyes Essay

Dove’s familiar campaign promotes healthy image standards, but ironically the corporation also owns Axe, which is one company that imposes such ideals. From day one, children are bombarded with ads, pictures, and expectations. While there have been movements to improve self-image in adolescents, companies are merely capitalizing on the trend to sell their products without regards for their impacts. Our society defines people by appearance, and individuals cannot escape those superficialities impressed on them at a young age. Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”, Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B”, and Paul Monette’s “No Goodbyes” are poems that illustrate the harms done. Although degrading standards are endorsed and supported by the public, adverse effects manifest in all and determine their outcomes by impacting their concepts of self and identity. In Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”, the main character becomes her flawed attributes, illustrating the broad harm of superficial interpretation of individuals, and only finds fulfillment in death. The girl is fashioned to be generic- …show more content…
In this poem, the sick man wishes to have his “bald spot” covered (11), which says two things. First, the importance of appearance still lingers in the thoughts of a dying man because he cannot escape what has been impressed on him. Second, it argues that this training was so successful that he cannot even be who he is with his loved ones because his displeasing appearance and weakness should be hidden to prevent his feelings of shame. While he is close to his partner when he is “kissed [on the] temple” (1), there is a barrier between the men. They connect on a meaningful level, but the sick man is self-conscious of his appearance in death, which forms a rift. Physical standards do not only hurt the individual but can wound relationships