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Marge Piercy's "The Secretary Chant" uses whimsical metaphor throughout the poem to let the reader know that the worker is a women doing a job that makes her feel like a machine with only one purpose in life. The author conjures up an explicit mental image of a woman who has no personal identity but who is living her life indirectly through her career. Piercy uses anomaly and outrageous pun to assist the reader in identifying with the feelings of a miserable worker who sits day in and day out at her desk performing mundane office drudgery. From the first line of the poem, the distinct metaphors make it obvious to the reader that the woman is a piece of witless office apparatus of extreme habit. The words are not vague but give an undeniable portrayal of the worker as being a bono fide material object. "My hips are a desk" (line 1) does not indicate that her hips are like a desk. "Rubber bands form my hair" (line 4) does not allude to her hair as |
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"From my mouth issue canceled reams" alludes to the fact that everyone really ignores her because she believes they see her as a robot completely void of human value. The speaker is aware that the people she works with or her boss assumes she has no personality or identity. The author uses two absurd metaphors to illustrate what is going on in the secretary's mind and this effectively communicates to the reader just how baffled and stressed this woman is because of the demands of her job. The woman does not view herself as a real human being but as something whose hair is formed with "Rubber bands" (line 4) and whose "breasts are wells of mimeograph ink" (line 5). "My feet bear casters" (line 6) indicates that the speaker is a piece of furniture with wheels that help her move around the office. She is now "Swollen, heavy, rectangular" which reveals to the reader that the woman has given in completely to being a machine and is now going to deliver "a baby Xerox machine". By using the typical sounds that machines make, the symbolism is more accurately expressed to the reader. Near the end of the poem, the secretary is pictured as being thoroughly developed into a lifeless machine. The author brings the poem to an end in a satirizing way. In the 11th and 15th lines, "Press my fingers" and "My navel is a reject button", the secretary is again reduced to a function. Tinkle" further personifies the speaker as simply a piece of office equipment. The verse, "My head is a badly organized file" (line 8) implies a secretary who is immensely engulfed in her job to the point of being overwhelmed. Different parts of her body are matched with unmistakable pieces of office equipment. Some topics in this essay:
Secretary Chant,
Zing Tinkle,
Marge Piercy,
office equipment,
rubber bands,
piece office equipment,
reader woman,
secretary chant,
woman probably,
throughout poem,
hips desk,
line 4,
piece office,
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Approximate Word count = 666
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced) |
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