Shame In Barbie-Q By Cisneros

Shame and the Power Hierarchies in Cisneros Author of I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame, Brene Brown, wrote in her book, “We cannot grow when we are in shame, and we can't use shame to change ourselves or others” (Shame). Shame is an effect of the situations each person has to face and can feel negatively about. Each person feels shame differently as some people ignore this shame; others feel the weight of the shame on them. In Cisneros’s “Eleven” and “Barbie-Q,” the two young narrators each had to deal with shame in their own ways. By using this shame, Cisneros showed the shame these narrators feel and how shame affected them through power hierarchies and their attempts at resisting such shame.

Both narrators are young girls who had to deal with shame in similar ways because of the different situation that affect them. The weight these two narrators felt when surrounded by shame is one that no child should have to bear. The shame in “Eleven” was in direct effect of the

The narrator in “Barbie-Q” resisted the negative association with the shame expected of her and did not allow that shame to stop her from enjoying her toys. The narrator posed this to readers when she says, “So what if we didn’t get our new Bendable Legs Barbie and Midge and Ken…in nice clean boxes and had to buy them on Maxwell Street, all water-soaked and sooty” (“Barbie-Q” 16). She used her innocence as a way to avoid the shame associated with her dolls and just focused on the excitement of receiving a new one. By her lack of real shame over her dolls and her own situation, she really fought the idea that one must feel ashamed and negatively towards themselves because of the shame they are presumed to feel because of their financial