In today’s world, many people follow and mimic what they see the rest of society doing. This can be taken in many ways such as appearance, personality and/or views on certain subjects. Everyone is special in their own way, however many people conform and give in to what society wants them to think, act, or look, and this can leave a person feeling trapped or acting out of the ordinary. For example the hummingbird in “Joyas Voladoras” by Brian Doyle portrays a character in which has a few minor flaws in its appearance, yet does not change itself to be what society wants it to be. Instead, it brushes off its flaws and reveals its characteristics in which society “approves of”. On the other hand the story “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy portrays
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No matter what the character did, society always resorted to judging her based off of her flaws which eventually led her to changing herself, or conforming to society, which resulted in her death. As already explained, the way society judges someone based off of their flaws can lead to suicidal thoughts and actions as what happened in the story. The character “went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose and thick legs” (Piercy 348). So, “she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up” (349). She finally gave into society and allowed all the societal negatively that was surrounding her life to take over her, so she performed the act that they wanted of her. That act was to get rid of her flaws, and conform to the societal “norm”. After she changed herself to be the image that everyone wanted her to be, she was viewed differently. Everyone complimented her, “doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said” (349). Not only did she get rid of her flaws so society would accept her, but getting rid of her flaws reminded herself that before she fit into society’s “norm” she was not accepted by the people around her. At the end of “Barbie Doll” she decides to commit suicide because of the influence society had on how she looked. She wanted to fit in and not feel judged, so she felt the …show more content…
In this story, Doyle describes the hummingbird with all of these unique features that no other animal has, and shows how special the bird is. Although its flaws may be that “a hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser” (Doyle 94), “when they rest they come close to death”...”their metabolic rate slows to a fifteenth of their normal sleep rate” (95), and that they are delicate animals, there are great things that people admire about it, such as that “each one visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards, and they can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest” (95). Though the hummingbird has flaws just like the character in “Barbie Doll”, the hummingbird does not change itself to fit in with society. Instead, the hummingbird looks at the positive aspects of his character, brushes off what society thinks of it, and lives life to the fullest. The hummingbird does not feel like it has to change in order for society to accept it, which boosts its self-esteem. In all, the ways that society affects the hummingbird compared to the character in Piercy’s story shows that society’s influence on people can make or break a person/character. Society’s influence on the
No matter what the character did, society always resorted to judging her based off of her flaws which eventually led her to changing herself, or conforming to society, which resulted in her death. As already explained, the way society judges someone based off of their flaws can lead to suicidal thoughts and actions as what happened in the story. The character “went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose and thick legs” (Piercy 348). So, “she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up” (349). She finally gave into society and allowed all the societal negatively that was surrounding her life to take over her, so she performed the act that they wanted of her. That act was to get rid of her flaws, and conform to the societal “norm”. After she changed herself to be the image that everyone wanted her to be, she was viewed differently. Everyone complimented her, “doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said” (349). Not only did she get rid of her flaws so society would accept her, but getting rid of her flaws reminded herself that before she fit into society’s “norm” she was not accepted by the people around her. At the end of “Barbie Doll” she decides to commit suicide because of the influence society had on how she looked. She wanted to fit in and not feel judged, so she felt the …show more content…
In this story, Doyle describes the hummingbird with all of these unique features that no other animal has, and shows how special the bird is. Although its flaws may be that “a hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser” (Doyle 94), “when they rest they come close to death”...”their metabolic rate slows to a fifteenth of their normal sleep rate” (95), and that they are delicate animals, there are great things that people admire about it, such as that “each one visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards, and they can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest” (95). Though the hummingbird has flaws just like the character in “Barbie Doll”, the hummingbird does not change itself to fit in with society. Instead, the hummingbird looks at the positive aspects of his character, brushes off what society thinks of it, and lives life to the fullest. The hummingbird does not feel like it has to change in order for society to accept it, which boosts its self-esteem. In all, the ways that society affects the hummingbird compared to the character in Piercy’s story shows that society’s influence on people can make or break a person/character. Society’s influence on the