Week Nine

Reading One: "Barbie Doll"

This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs. 

She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs. 

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up. 

In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending. 

1. Identify the speaker, offering passages from the poem that allow you to draw this conclusion about who the speaker is.

The speaker within the poem is a narrator. The poem is not specific who is the speaker. The poem could be the speaker of the reader for all we know.

"Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs."

2. Explain what the situation of the poem is. What is happening? Do we know the time period? the place? 

The poem starts out with a average day girl; once the girl hits puberty she is intimidated by what society sees as exceptionable "the barbie doll image". The little girl was teased; this then lead the little girl to cut her nose and legs which lead to a dreadful death. We are unaware of the time period and the place. However, we can draw that this was during the time period of when barbie was in existence and the setting would be of the girl at school and at a funeral.

3. Write down two or three words that identify the tone of the poem? Again, offer specific passages or words from the poem that allow you to draw draw these conclusions. 

Exercise, Diet, and Smile

"Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt."

"So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up."

"In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,"

4. Write one sentence that expresses the main theme of the poem.

The main theme of the poem would be image. Society is so obsessed with peoples image that if we are unable to make the criteria of "the barbie doll" we are to fat and unattractive.