Marge Piercy

one of the many societal standards that trick young girls into thinking that they must live up to in order to be beautiful. This causes young girls to grow up with the false mindset that if they do not look a certain way no one will love them. Marge Piercy, Sandra Cisneros, and Ellen Kay use poetry to demonstrate the lasting affect literature’s perception of physical appearance has on young girls.…

Marilyn Monroe: Popular Culture Icon The appeal of a perfect body type still exists in American culture. Media and celebrities have always been trend setters, especially during the 1950’s when movie and film stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn made a significant impact on women’s self-image. Monroe's body proportions, attitude, and sex appeal continue to set standards for women in the 21st century. The persistence of Marilyn Monroe exemplifies the importance of the perfect body…

(Rich, 1950). Men no longer filled these women’s need and this can also be demonstrated in Piercy’s poem, “What’s That Smell in The Kitchen”. One line from the poem the woman said “once I was roast duck on a platter with parsley but now I am Spam” (Piercy, 1936). This line the women is describing to her husband how in the past he cherished her and treated her as if she was roast duck on a platter, but now he treats her as if she is the las thing he would eat, spam. Unlike the woman in Rich’s…

Kirstin M. 11 April, 2016 Drop Box 3 – Poem Analysis The drop box three is about the poem analysis from the book. For this assignment, I have chosen poem, “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy. An American writer, novelist, and the social worker Marge has presented poem of an adolescent pitiful life and how situation is adapted by the time. “Barbie Doll” A poem, “Barbie Doll” is about a girl who…

There are multiple similarities shared between both the poem, A Work of Artifice, by Marge Piercy, and the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. The main similarity is in the overall theme present in both pieces, more specifically the theme of power and dominance. This is not to belittle the significance of other similarities between the two, such as their parallel views on feminism, along with sexuality and control. The novel and poem resemble each other in numerous ways; they both…

Marge Piercy’s, The Secretary Chant, describes a woman feeling dehumanized by her job to the point where it consumes her and she becomes the lifeless, inanimate objects she works with. Piercy expresses the secretary’s emotions across in a somewhat humorous way using metaphors, onomatopoeia, and repetition. The whole poem is an extended metaphor comparing a secretary to the office supplies surrounding her. Her role as a human is belittled and she is reduced to functionaries, not seeing herself…

throws images at them of beautiful women, unrealistic gender role toys, and the ideas that girls are meant to be in the kitchen from day one doesn’t help. Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” is an astounding example of the affects society has on girls by putting focus on toys, peers, and the damage of a negative self-image. Starting with toys, Piercy makes her opening lines stating that, “This girlchild was born as usual/and presented dolls that did pee-pee”(1-2). What is being stated is that from a…

be of use in any society. In the case of Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy has many small but very impactful occupations. In this essay I will look at Mr. Darcy’s occupation of spending his money and pleasing people through the lens of Marge Piercy’s appreciation for the hard work that others do in “To be of use”. This helps us to see that when Darcy secretly paid off Wickham’s gambling debts and paid him to marry Lydia, he had no obligation of doing…

and dystopian works that challenge the patriarchal world. Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) focuses on the presence of the feminist science fiction in America in the 1970s that has become a sub-genre of science fiction. Piercy offerings two possible futures for the central character in the novel where both utopia and dystopia are present. She introduces…

poems; including Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”’, Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”, and Francine Prose’s “Scent of a Women’s Ink”. These literacy works have different styles, but they all focus on the idea of oppressive gender roles in society, within in…