Poetry Comparison Barbie Doll Youths Progress
Young versus old. Death versus eternal life. The positive effects of society’s pressure versus the negative. Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” and Dick Schneider’s “Youth’s Progress” are a study in the themes mentioned above. There are many obvious similarities in the chronological structure and irony of the two works. However, the reader will find that there are more thought-provoking contrasts than initially meet the eye. Not surprisingly, the poems follow the natural course of chronological time: beginning to end, young to old. Both poems unfold with birth, continue through the “growing up” years, b
“Barbie Doll” ends with the tragedy of a woman who, because she didn’t live up to the unrealistic standard created for her, resorts to suicide. Though she attempts to defy these expectations by cutting off her “great big nose” and “fat legs,” in her death the woman is displayed in her casket, cosmetics painted on and a beautiful turned-up putty nose. “Our way of life has hardly changed since a wheel first whetted a knife. Finally, she fits the mold cut for her by society. The course a life will take is ultimately decided by the individual, the sum of his choices and reactions to the cards dealt to him by Life. Bibliography Bowland, Eavan. ” While “Youth’s Progress” chronicles the growth of the subject with specific years and ages, “Barbie Doll” simply accounts for the passing of time in a story-teller’s fashion of memories. The separation of stanzas in both works indicates a new stage of life, though Piercy leaves the reader to guess the actual age of the “girlchild” in “Barbie Doll. The positive effects of society’s pressure versus the negative. A healthy, intelligent and strong woman is compelled by society to bustle “to and fro apologizing,” apologizing for failing to mirror the image of the Barbie-like woman the world seems to want. It required the “magic” of puberty for a child to point out the negative aspects of a physical body. Piercy employs the stylistic device of irony throughout the entirety of her poem. ” The reader will note that a major theme of both poems is the long-term effect of outside pressure on the subjects from birth.
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Acceptance Essays
