Women & Tone Poetry has the persuasive power to express problematic societal issues, but cause the reader to feel very different about the topic in general. Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll, explores the life of a lady from her time of innocent adolescence to the death, when she is referred to as a woman. The speaker explains the struggle that this female had once reaching puberty with feeling confident, since the way that she appeared differed than what societal norms would consider sufficient. The tone shifts throughout the poem, and ends in a sarcastic manner to further the point of the absurdity of trying to please a never content society. In Ellen Kay’s Pathedy of Manners, the speak recounts the life of the female character, which begins very
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Our female now is a twenty-year old sorority sister, that is just beginning, what we later to find out to be, the peak of her life. Even while attending college, “She learned the cultured jargon of those,” meaning that she began to alter herself in order to find a man to marry one day, since clearly the way she was originally would not suit the men she desired. She also valued the attention of men, and viewed it as a “reward.” The tone seems very harsh towards this young lady, as she transforms into a totally different person in order to impress a future spouse. Being apart of an “ideal marriage,” and having children did not lead her to happiness though. At the age of forty-three, her life seems miserable as her husband has died, and “Her children gone.” She also does not have one field and is left alone “to the end.” Women often center their lives around the idea of marrying and having children, and are very excluded from society at this point. This left the woman lonesome, yet the tone does not seem very sorrowful- as though she was to blame. Women in Barbie Doll seem not to be blamed for the fact that they alter themselves, because of all the pressure society puts on them to become perfect. In “Pathedy of Manners,” however, the tone seems to be more matter-of-fact, as though the woman should not have based her life around finding one man, and her desertedness at the age
Our female now is a twenty-year old sorority sister, that is just beginning, what we later to find out to be, the peak of her life. Even while attending college, “She learned the cultured jargon of those,” meaning that she began to alter herself in order to find a man to marry one day, since clearly the way she was originally would not suit the men she desired. She also valued the attention of men, and viewed it as a “reward.” The tone seems very harsh towards this young lady, as she transforms into a totally different person in order to impress a future spouse. Being apart of an “ideal marriage,” and having children did not lead her to happiness though. At the age of forty-three, her life seems miserable as her husband has died, and “Her children gone.” She also does not have one field and is left alone “to the end.” Women often center their lives around the idea of marrying and having children, and are very excluded from society at this point. This left the woman lonesome, yet the tone does not seem very sorrowful- as though she was to blame. Women in Barbie Doll seem not to be blamed for the fact that they alter themselves, because of all the pressure society puts on them to become perfect. In “Pathedy of Manners,” however, the tone seems to be more matter-of-fact, as though the woman should not have based her life around finding one man, and her desertedness at the age