Symbols and Metaphors in “Barbie Doll” Poem by Piercy

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Use of Symbols and Metaphors in “Barbie Doll”
What We Talk About When We Talk About
The Theme of Elusive Love
The Theme of Inadequacy of Language
The Theme of Drug and Alcohol
Marriage
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Present-day poet Marge Piercy composed an open-form narrative elegy titled “Barbie Doll.” In a four-stanza poem, the poet offers her audience a short story of an unnamed “girlchild” whose lifespan, noticeably impacted by others’ views, comes to a premature and sad end. The poem starts with a story about an unspecified girlchild who was delivered as usual and received presumably suitable gifts such as dolls, makeup, and minuscule home appliances. Thereafter, a fellow student remarks inauspiciously on her look and shape. “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy Line 5-6). In the second stanza, the reader is exposed to the girl’s physical prowess, sexual drive, and intelligence. The youngster appears to be strong, healthy, and capable, yet she disregards these attributes, rather going back and forth apologizing. As the young girl ages, she gets adequate counseling from senior people.

The third stanza documents behaviors intended to encourage her success and happiness. Shortly, her attractive appearance crumbles like an old automobile part, and as an adult, she perpetually gets herself off the observed insufficiencies. The closing stanza presents to the reader a lifeless woman lying in a coffin and theatrically contrived by the mortician. The poet resolves “consummation at last, to every woman a happy ending” (Piercy Line 24-25). The feminist poet slams the gender bias and injustices directed at women.

The poem discloses the vices of modern-day society and ethos, which incline to the objectification of ladies by employing Barbie doll as an average female beauty to represent such challenges. The main character in this elegy antagonizes the issues between her innate beauty and the socially fabricated ideal. Through peer pressure, she desires to undertake surgery to enhance beauty, which is the influence of gender injustice and inequality condemned by the feminist poet (Abilowo 2). Piercy articulates her opinions and critiques the effect of society and contemporary culture on women through rich metaphors, imagery, and symbols (Abilowo 3). These poetic devices depict the absurdity of gender-based roles, biases, and current ideals of female beauty.

The Use of Symbols and Metaphors in “Barbie Doll”

The poet employs symbols to tell the overpowering effect of patriarchal society on creating gender attitudes and roles to women, perceptions of their bodily look, and their status in the community. The introductory lines reveal that the leading character in the ode is the ordinary girl who experiences peer pressure in her social surrounding just like her other young associates. She came as a usual girl but was later conditioned by the social environment and her parents to adopt the desired status of a female. The poet demonstrates that from childhood, the leading character is orientated to be a girl by being presented GE stoves and iron as symbols of womanhood. Piercy utilizes dolls as a symbol to illustrate the development of gender roles from childhood when she notes:

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 (Piercy Line 1-4).

Moreover, these items portray that women’s gender roles are destined to the aspects of household ad motherhood. The title “Barbie Doll” symbolizes womanhood as seen by the poet as a tool for preparing the expected gender roles of females. The title also exemplifies the ideals of woman beauty that girls absorb from childhood and which they try to adhere to as they mature (Abilowo 20). By allowing the young girl to play with the doll, a sheer female toy, the poet symbolizes expectations to become a woman as outlined in the existing cultural and social standards. Nonetheless, such standards and social preparing or creating of gender roles, as well as standards of women’s beauty, are different from the regular development of women that the poet envisages. Piercy also demonstrates how the leading character can suffer from criticism from her associates, whose stance on beauty anchors in biased ideals of Barbie-like splendor.

The poet employs metaphor to portray the drastic transformation that happened to the protagonist in her puberty. She decisively refers to teenage years as “the magic of puberty” (Piercy Line 5) to accentuate the weighty and vital changes happening to the protagonist and her peers. Adolescence causes great changes, which an individual can barely believe, mainly a child undergoing psychological and physiological transformation, as well as shaping of sexuality. By defining teenage years as the mystic of puberty, Piercy metaphorically paints this stage as a period that entails preposterous changes occurring to the mind and body of the leading character. The application of metaphor helps to depict puberty and psychological and physiological alteration more comprehensible and vivid to the reader.

The composer uses imagery and concentrates on the Barbie doll as the ideal of feminine beauty that all women strive to attain. The protagonist becomes bold enough to accept surgery to eliminate natural beauty and assume a Barbie-like appearance. In the poem, the Barbie doll represents an image of a standard female that passes standards of beauty to all women (Abilowo 69). The unnamed young girls become motivated to take surgery to attain that desirable beauty. The poet deems this move unwise since there is nothing good from replacing natural beauty.

What We Talk About When We Talk About

In one of his famous short stories titled “What We Talk About When We Talk About,” Raymond Carver tells the story of Mell and his spouse, Terri, who have diverse standpoints on love. Nick narrates this tale through a dialogue with Laura and pronounces what occurs as they party with Terri and Mel. The narrative entails two couples sitting around the desk in Mel’s home subject of love emerges, making Terri discuss her relations with Ed (Carver 290). The two were in an abusive relationship, but she still loves him. He loved her so much and committed suicide following failure in the initial attempt.

Astoundingly, he survived and was rushed to the hospital, where Mel fought to be near his bedside and regard the suicide attempt as a gesture of love. When Mel completed the story, Nick opened another bottle of gin. Terri also asks him about his wife, to which he responds: “Laura is a legal secretary, we’d met in a professional capacity before we knew it, it was a courtship. In addition to being in love, we like each other and enjoy one another’s company” (Carver 292). Mel continues to describe his love journey, and the bickering continues as they down several bottles of gin.

Terri states that Mel is depressed and inquires if he might require a pill to manage the situation. Mel refutes its efficacy and only requires to speak to his children. However, Terri nixes that thought since Marjorie, his ex-wife, might receive the call, leading to unwarranted tension between the two. Mel continues to allude that Marjorie is vicious and strikes a deal with Terri not to call his youngsters since it’s an inappropriate idea. Four thematic areas of elusive love, language inadequacy, drugs and alcohol, and marriage are presented in this analysis.

The Theme of Elusive Love

The nature of love appears elusive throughout Carver’s story, although the characters show dedication effort in describing it. Mel attempts several times to identify the definition of love, but his cases fail to create a coherent conclusion. For instance, Mel narrates to his friends about some elderly couple who almost died in a road crash. However, the end of that story entails an old man stressed by not seeing his wife, leading to confusion. He then affirms that he will describe what love entails but later deviates to a disarrayed meditation about being strange to love (Allison 183). Mel’s further attempts in describing love ultimately result in a bitter outburst against his ex-lover.

Nick and Laura trust they understand the definition of love but fail to present a vivid description to support their persuasions. They illustrate their love for one another by holding hands and blushing, actions supporting the elusive nature of love instead of unmasking it. Terri also seems not to be sure about the definition of love by recurrently asserting that her obnoxious ex-lover, Ed, dearly cherished her, despite his senseless manner of depicting it (Carver 294). The instances of love she provides, which consist of threatening, stalking, and beating, are appalling but act as proof in her thoughts (Chan 9). Just like other friends, she cannot conclusively define and demonstrate the nature of love.

The Theme of Inadequacy of Language

While the four folks extensively discuss the subject of love, they fail to expansively define it, signifying language insufficiency to pronounce emotive, abstract areas. Mel is verbose, but his distended narratives and inconsequential deviations depict he has challenges in passing his feelings and thoughts. Terri speaks well of her ex-lover, Ed, but when challenged by Mel, she shifts to perceptions to make her case. He states: “it gets worse, he shot himself in the mouth, but he bungled that too, poor Ed” (Carver 292). She trusts that Ed valued her irrespective of what Mel or other friends think of her, illustrating that gut feelings regarding love can appear more accurate and powerful than mere words. Nick and Laura also speak scantly about love but rely on bodily gestures to communicate what language cannot express. The two simply hold hands, blush, and touch one another’s legs to depict the genuine nature of love.

The Theme of Drug and Alcohol

Raymond Carver is a former alcoholic and vastly understands what alcohol can do to one’s life. Carver depicts the use of alcohol in numerous instances in the story. For example, “She poured the last of the gin into her glass and waggled the bottle. Mel got up from the table and went to the cupboard and took down another bottle” (Carver 293). As the four friends become drunk, their discussion is frustrating and incoherent. Among the four, Mel grapples the most, evident by his gin-saturated arguments (Carver 295). The more he continues to clarify love, the more the readers see the impacts of alcohol. Moreover, by reducing their inhibitions, alcohol permits them to engage in an intimate discussion about love, a situation they might ordinarily shy to deliberate.

Marriage

Carver’s story features two wedded couples engaging in a discussion about love. Laura and Nick are newly married pairs and have stayed together for roughly eighteen months. Terri and Mel have also lived together for nearly five years, but their marriage life contrasts and compares subtly. Nick and Laura’s union is joyful, easy, and straightforward. Terri and Mel’s union is loving but occasionally gets messier. However, whether unhappy or happy, both marriages depicted in this Carver’s story look comparable. In this work, marriage and love have nothing in common. It is apparent, Mel never valued Marjorie, but he just wedded her anyway. Therefore, a key lesson is that without proper communication, a marriage will not hold, as reflected in Mel and Terri’s union that never lasted.

Conclusion

In conclusion, “Barbie Doll” discloses how gender-related favoritisms and roles are created and natured in women. The poet uses metaphors, symbols, and imagery to show how her feminist interpretations. Moreover, the Barbie doll establishes the image of a standard female, which the leading character acquires from childhood by playing with the toys to orientate her of her roles and appearance when she matures. However, as she ages, she gets more dissatisfied as her fellows criticize the look on the pretext that she does not match the beauty depicted by the Barbie doll. The poet employs metaphor to portray the drastic transformation that happened to the protagonist in her puberty. Piercy stresses natural beauty instead of Barbie-like attractiveness encouraged by the present-day society and culture. Carver also discusses love more concisely and attractively in his short story. He demonstrates that words merely are not sufficient when conversing love, perhaps why all the characters have tumbled quietly by the close of the story.

Works Cited

Abilowo, Thomas. Piercy’s Struggle For Equality in “A Work Of Artifice,” “Barbie Doll,” and “What Are Big Girls Made Of?”. 2021. Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta, PhD dissertation.

Allison, Julia. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love as an Affect: Framing love as an Affect in the Process of Self-Formation. Philosophy of Education Archive, 2020.

Carver, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Harvill Press, 1996.

Chan, Andrew M. What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Love? True Love, Passionate Love, and Pining in the Short Fiction of Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. 2021. California Institute of Technology, Doctoral dissertation.

Piercy, Marge. Barbie Doll. Red Mountain Tribe, 1971.

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