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Figurative Language In Barbie Doll, By Marge Piercy

1525 Words7 Pages

The life of a women is difficult at all the stages of life, from birth to death, there is certain clothes they need to wear, they need to act a certain way, and do the chores that society feels are necessary for them to do. Society makes it clear that a woman is different from men and the tasks that they have are different. The author of “Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy sheds a light of the difference on how people treat girls and women as they go from early childhood to adolescence. Piercy uses the connotation of different words, visual imagery, and the comparison between different elements in the girl’s life to ironize society’s social standards that lead to women’s suicides and deaths. The first element of figurative language Marge Piercy uses is the connotation of different words to ironize how women are treated, but in doing so, she sheds light on the wrongs that they face. The girl in the poem hit the “magic” …show more content…

Piercy shows the nature of the female spirt when she says “her good nature wore out/like a fan belt” (15-16) and the strength that she had throughout childhood to live with the imperfections that society thought were imperfections. The fan belts that are in cars are tough and made to last thousands of miles; this can be the same with the nature of the mind and body. A person in their lifetime goes through tough times, like the insults mentioned in the poem, and dealing with how everybody has their own opinions that they give a person live their life to the fullest. However, in the poem “her good nature” (15) is trying to take everybody’s opinion and advice into consideration, and it did not work. The advice wore her down and she was not able to deal with it. She killed herself so she would not have to take everybody’s advice and she could have some peace and is finally free of the ideas that society has for a

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