ipl-logo

Sandra Cisnero's Barbie-Q

1218 Words5 Pages

Barbies and The Poor

As a young child, did you even imagine having just one toy to play with because your family couldn't afford more? Not everyone has had to go through that luckily however many children still do. Many times people take for granted what they have and what they can get at an easy access. But not everyone has that ease in life. For other families who are struggling just to make ends meet providing for the child is the first priority, not toys. Those families don’t have the extra money to be splurging on unnecessary items, like toys. In the short story, “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisnero the narrator’s family is poor and she understands that and appreciates the new dolls very much. The narrator is positive about her situation because her optimism, her age and her socio-economic status however the reader should feel negatively about it because the feeling of ungratefulness and that the reader has a feeling of entitlement.

In the short story the narrator is positive about her situation due to her optimism. In the last paragraph when the narrator is telling the reader about the dolls she just got from the flea market she states, “So what if our Barbies smell like smoke when you hold them up to your nose after you wash and wash and wash them. And if the prettiest …show more content…

However the narrator doesn’t care she is just happy and positive to get a new doll. The narrator is positive about her situation because her optimism, her age and her socio-economic status. However readers should feel negatively about the situation because the feeling of ungratefulness and the feeling of entitlement. People need to be grateful for what they have because not everyone has the same advantages. Some people struggle and people need to realize that. Not everything we need is supposed to be given to us, people need to work for a

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    she’d say, cocking her head to the side to get a better view of the hole in my head. Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s boy”. Poor families living in destitution are resourceful, “‘my sailboat cost me about fifty cents’”. Even though they do not have the financial benefits, the children play with toys they make themselves. They value money because there is less of it so it goes to the important things in life.

    Read More

  • In Cold Blood Quotes And Analysis

    684 Words  | 3 Pages

    The doll represents lives lost too soon, children who never got to grow up. In this way, the reader knows that the town of Holcomb has lost the virtue they didn’t realize they had before. With the innocence of the Clutters taken from them and murderers on the loose, how would they ever return to

    Read More

  • Sandra Cisneros Barbie-Q: A Literary Analysis

    1793 Words  | 8 Pages

    The story tells the reader about how two girls, each owns a Barbie doll with their one outfit piece and they made a dress out of worn socks for the dolls. One Sunday, they both went to the flea market on Maxwell Street, where the dolls of the other characters in Barbie were sold with lower price as a big toy warehouse was destroyed by fire. They did not mind to buy the dolls at the flea market even though the dolls were flawed, soaked with water and smelled like ashes. Barbie is widely pictured as a successful girl, who is perfect in every way; with her beautiful face, a slim body, nice house, secured job and a handsome boyfriend which is the fancy of every girl. The story tells the reader of the expectancy for women to have this immaculate figure, ignoring the fact that each person has different body fat percentage and body mass index which may affect their sizes and weights.

    Read More

  • Barbie Doll Rhetorical Analysis

    1144 Words  | 5 Pages

    The freedom of being able to change Barbie’s clothes into her various wardrobes sold gives the young children playing with her the sense of individuality. Although Barbie has brought a lot of controversy to the table within the years it has been on the shelf, her portrayal has not changed because after all she is just a doll,

    Read More

  • Materialism In The House On Mango Street

    1160 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and many materialistic people are like that because they are not fully thankful of what they do have and they are just thinking about what else they can have to make themselves a happy person. Esperanza is not having gratitude about what her parents could get for her family and she is instead complaining and hoping every time they move, it is to that so talk house. She is certainly not recognizing the fact that her parents may have work their hardest to afford the house. Kids, like Esperanza, are not conscious enough of financial situations. “Relatively poor teenagers ironically tend to be more materialistic than wealthy ones” (Carter).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

    1827 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Haves and The Have Nots: Breaking The Mental Chains of Poverty “The Lesson”, written by Toni Cade Bambara, is a short story which shows that while education is a powerful and essential tool for changing one’s circumstances when it comes to social status, it is ultimately how we are affected internally by the things we learn that holds the most sway. Sylvia, the main character of the story, recounts a memory from her childhood which seems to hold significance to her as an adult. Her recollection specifically touches on one summer when a woman known as Miss Moore takes Sylvia and a few other neighborhood children from the slums to an expensive toy store on Fifth Avenue. While at the toy store, the children experience a variety of emotions

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Synthesis Essay

    1052 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout her life, Janie is expected to follow the clear social standards for women that are plaguing her community. Janie is told by a fellow member of her community that “A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Imagery In Barbie Doll By Marge Piercy

    802 Words  | 4 Pages

    The poem Barbie doll by Marge Piercy is about a little girl who grows up only to kill herself for not living up to society’s standards. The speaker shows how she had a normal childhood and was happy playing with here baby dolls and toy stove. However, during puberty, her body changed and everyone noticed. She was criticized for her “fat nose and thick legs”. She tried to change by dieting and exercising, but soon tired of doing so.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Lesson By Toni Cade Bambara

    975 Words  | 4 Pages

    When faced with such an example of frivolous spending, it could easily serve to make someone of lower income feel like they were catching a glimpse of another world entirely…a world from which they were unceremoniously excluded by reason of circumstance. Living in poverty can lead a person to feel overcome with hopelessness when comparing their own lives to the lives of the wealthy. This can result in a lack of motivation to improve circumstances since the future isn’t easy to envision while dealing with immediate stress. As professor of psychology, Elliot Berkman puts it, “Worrying about tomorrow can be a luxury if you don’t know how you’ll survive

    Read More

  • Marge Piercy's The Barbie Doll

    707 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy is a short poem that talks about a little girl who is born just like any other little girl. She plays with dolls and little ovens and messes around with makeup. She is fine and unbothered with her life till she hits puberty. Around that age she has a classmate tell her “you have a big nose and fat legs.” She was a girl who was healthy, strong, and intelligent but, she was apologizing to everyone for what they saw.

    Read More

  • Meaning Of Barbie Q By Sandra Cisneros

    606 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story ''Barbie Q,'' Sandra Cisneros portrays that Barbie dolls can impact girl's lives as they grow up, and influence the way they act and perceive themselves. These girls grow up in a poor family environment considering that they acquired the rest of the dolls in a toys sale after a store burned down. In ‘‘Barbie Q,’’what is the thematic significance of the damaged dolls after the fire? The girl’s enthusiasm to get the new dolls -when they said that they prefer to receive new doll’s clothes- suggests that the meaning of these Barbie dolls is more than just a new toy.

    Read More

  • Identity In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

    730 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the constant fear of ridicule and discrimination, we still try and define ourselves, though we are always under the society’s scope. Marge Piercy, in her poem “Barbie Doll”, gives us a look at the influence of our surroundings and how something as innocent as a doll can trigger these insecurities. Our strive for acceptance and “perfection” can cause major emotional damage on anyone who identifies as a woman. Young girls look at these depictions of “perfect” bodies, such as a barbie doll for example, and compare themselves. In the poem “Barbie Doll”, Piercy talks about a young girl who she described as “...healthy, tested and intelligent...” (247) but, she was picked on by peers who said she had “a great big nose and fat legs.”

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Marge Piercy's A Barbie Doll

    1480 Words  | 6 Pages

    The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy suggests that girls are fatally and ultimately entrapped by society's definition of what feminine beauty and behavior is. In our society we believe that women should be perfect. We want women to be as flawless as a Barbie doll and in doing so we create many struggles for women because no one can ever achieve that goal. The poem gives off a sense of irony when “society” compares a young girl to a Barbie doll. Our society has an ideal that was created by the influences of popular media and culture that is impossible for anyone to reach.

    Read More

  • Short Story Barbie-Q By Sandra Cisneros

    770 Words  | 4 Pages

    It portrays how two girls make best of what they have and look past all of the flaws that each Barbie doll may have. Meaning that they do not care that their Barbie doll does not look like the rest of them, they still view the toy as a doll to play with. It shows how the two girls view beauty and what it means to them. The lesson learned in this short story is that you should not judge a book by its cover; there is always something beautiful about someone or

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On The Barbie Doll

    1108 Words  | 5 Pages

    As a little girl you are encouraged to be who you want to be. You fill your world with fairy tales or Barbie dolls that inspire you to believe that the sky is the limit. But little do you know, that as you grow older, the dreams you are forging for yourself is no longer achievable. Where you once saw the sky as the limit is now transformed to be seen as a man’s word as the limit. No little girl, you are not liberated nor are you empowered…you are simply propagated by a man’s world to believe that you are.

    Read More

More about Sandra Cisnero's Barbie-Q

Open Document