In Marge Piercy's , "Barbie Doll," we see all to well about how society pushes its agenda on how women should aspire to look and behave. In our patriarchal society, girls have been taught that to be women, they are to be weak,vulnerable,soft spoken, kind, nurturing,emotional,and dainty like. Girls are also taught they have to look a certain way or measure up to a " barbie doll," image to be considered "sexy". In the poem," Barbie Doll," in the following lines:
"She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle."
we see how it ties into what I was saying above about society has it's moldings on what a women should be. The poem shows that from childhood, girls have dolls that go "pee pee," that come along with little stoves and irons, that also come with little lipsticks of cherry red. For years women were thought only good enough to do house work and nurture children. A woman was only to be in the private sphere of the home and not in the public sphere of the workplace. Women were to keep a certain image. They were taught to wait hand and foot on their husbands, to never argue,to always smile and just be pleasant and dainty at all times.The media does a lot to push these " barbie doll," images of what women should act and look like. Magazines, music, television and ads all bombard us with images that are overtly sexual, explicit and is their ideal look of "perfection".These influences shape young womens cultural views about what they should look and behave like. It pressures young innocent minds to conform to what society says is the "right attitude" to have when trying to be the "ideal woman," or in this case, a "barbie doll." The pressures that society pushes then sets up young girls for low self esteem sometimes resulting in eating disorders or depression for trying to measure up to something that is pretty much impossible.
"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."
In these lines Piercy is showing us that in this society most times a woman being intelligent,healthy is overlooked as something that isn't important unless she's attractive too. Looks are deemed to be more important than being intelligent or having a good sense of character. the next few lines also show this:
"Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up."
Often some women will go to the extremes to live up to society's ideal of "perfection," even harming themselves or letting go of their good nature to be something they aren't. Just as women will do it, young girls will do what it takes to " fit in," to be accepted by their peers. Unfortunately, young children aren't mature enough to handle peer pressures and teasing done by others, resulting in harming themselves physically or even trying to kill themselves.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
HAY FOR THE HORSES by Gary Snyder
In the poem, "Hay For The Horses," by Gary Snyder, we are introduced to the speaker. The speaker is with another person who is a farmer. Both people are coming back from a long night of driving to go get hay for the farm. Once they get back to the farm at 8 am, the poem starts to describe the environment on the farm.Before 8 am you already get the sense of hard work put in overnight to go get this hay for the farm and before midday you also see more of the hard work that is put in on the farm in the lines that say,"With winch and ropes and hooks We stacked the bales up clean To splintery redwood rafters High in the dark, flecks of alfalfa Whirling through shingle-cracks of light, Itch of haydust in the sweaty shirt and shoes."
By lunchtime, the audience is seeing the horses eating from their pale buckets and are made aware of the crickets crackling through the weeds. We get a sense of the small, day to day things that happen on the farm.
"I'm sixty-eight" he said, "I first bucked hay when I was seventeen. I thought, that day I started, I sure would hate to do this all my life. And dammit, that's just what I've gone and done."
I feel like the poet goes from the simple day to day things to hearing the farmer say that he's sixty eight and never thought he'd be doing the same line of work that he hated so much since he was seventeen. I feel like form the beginning of the poem, the poet makes you aware of the sense of time and how it goes by so quickly. One minute you're seventeen hating this job and the next thing you know, through all the hard work and sweat put in, minute to minute, day to day, you spent your whole life working hard doing something you've hated and you're already sixty eight. That's Fifty one years spent working a job you've hated your whole life, more than a quarter or more than half of your life. It's kind of like the farmer has an epiphany in a way at the end when he says,
"I first bucked hay when I was seventeen. I thought, that day I started, I sure would hate to do this all my life. And dammit, that's just what I've gone and done."
Having this moment of clarity,like yes I did hate this all my life, it's like he gets mad at himself for doing it but then just as quickly as he gets mad, he just embraces it and takes it for what it is. It doesn't seem like this is a good thing and it doesn't seem like this is a bad thing. The farmer just embraces the hard work he has done day to day, until this point.
I guess a lot of people can relate to this poem, in the sense that a lot of people don't want to get stuck working the rest of their lives doing something they hate. Lots of people give up on their dreams, to become grownups with responsibilities who work 9-5 jobs that they dread just to fit into society. In college, there is always pressure to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life or what career you will end up studying for. Being young,many people are confused about what they should study for their career paths because of lack of experience. This poem also reminds me of something my father always told me which is when you pick out what you want to do for the rest of your life , to make sure it's something you love because you will never work a day in your life. You will never strain yourself emotionally or physically because it's something that will make you happy to do and bring that great energy into your life and allow you to keep exerting it. Many young people with the confusion of not knowing what to do end up picking the wrong things and end up going into careers they end up hating and get stuck doing them for sometimes the rest of their lives.
By lunchtime, the audience is seeing the horses eating from their pale buckets and are made aware of the crickets crackling through the weeds. We get a sense of the small, day to day things that happen on the farm.
"I'm sixty-eight" he said, "I first bucked hay when I was seventeen. I thought, that day I started, I sure would hate to do this all my life. And dammit, that's just what I've gone and done."
I feel like the poet goes from the simple day to day things to hearing the farmer say that he's sixty eight and never thought he'd be doing the same line of work that he hated so much since he was seventeen. I feel like form the beginning of the poem, the poet makes you aware of the sense of time and how it goes by so quickly. One minute you're seventeen hating this job and the next thing you know, through all the hard work and sweat put in, minute to minute, day to day, you spent your whole life working hard doing something you've hated and you're already sixty eight. That's Fifty one years spent working a job you've hated your whole life, more than a quarter or more than half of your life. It's kind of like the farmer has an epiphany in a way at the end when he says,
"I first bucked hay when I was seventeen. I thought, that day I started, I sure would hate to do this all my life. And dammit, that's just what I've gone and done."
Having this moment of clarity,like yes I did hate this all my life, it's like he gets mad at himself for doing it but then just as quickly as he gets mad, he just embraces it and takes it for what it is. It doesn't seem like this is a good thing and it doesn't seem like this is a bad thing. The farmer just embraces the hard work he has done day to day, until this point.
I guess a lot of people can relate to this poem, in the sense that a lot of people don't want to get stuck working the rest of their lives doing something they hate. Lots of people give up on their dreams, to become grownups with responsibilities who work 9-5 jobs that they dread just to fit into society. In college, there is always pressure to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life or what career you will end up studying for. Being young,many people are confused about what they should study for their career paths because of lack of experience. This poem also reminds me of something my father always told me which is when you pick out what you want to do for the rest of your life , to make sure it's something you love because you will never work a day in your life. You will never strain yourself emotionally or physically because it's something that will make you happy to do and bring that great energy into your life and allow you to keep exerting it. Many young people with the confusion of not knowing what to do end up picking the wrong things and end up going into careers they end up hating and get stuck doing them for sometimes the rest of their lives.
Monday, April 11, 2011
"Jazz Chick " By Bob Kaufman
In the Bob Kaufman’s, “Jazz Chick,” we are introduced to the poet whom is intrigued by a woman’s “ jazzy,“ presence. Kaufman’s poem is very sensual. His use of language is very rich and alive. The poem has it’s own cool, sweet jazzy rhythm to it as you read it. Kaufman is captivated by this woman’s essence .
For example, Kaufman uses many descriptive words to paint the imagery in our minds. “Music from her breast, vibrating ,Sound seared into burnished velvet. Silent hips deceiving fools,” is how the poem starts out. Automatically you get the image of a woman with a presence so strong that emanates through everyone in the room. As the reader, I also get the image of a woman so beautiful that not one person can miss how beautiful she is. From the line about her silent hips deceiving fools, I get that from her body structure the men are turned into fools. They probably can’t help but stare at such beauty and don’t know how to behave themselves.
“Rivulets of trickling ecstasy ,From the alabaster pools of Jazz ,Where music cools
hot souls. Eyes more articulately silent, Than Medusa's thousand tongues.” From these lines I get the image of beautiful soulful jazz music fills the nightclub where everyone is and the music cools down the hormones that are raging throughout the club. Eyes throughout the nightclub are “articulately silent, than medusas thousand tongues.” Here I feel Kaufman is saying that all the eyes in the nightclub are finding the ways to flirt or talk seductively without using words. The comparison to Medusa’s thousand tongues means that the eyes in their “silence,” are louder than any verbalizing could try to accomplish. “A bridge of eyes, consenting smiles reveal her presence singing Of cool remembrance, happy balls Wrapped in swinging Jazz Her music...Jazz.” I feel here the speaker is saying a connection of eyes and approving stares, like men liking what they see in this woman he speaks about reminds them of something comfortable or common, something sweet or close to home. The woman which he speaks about has a jubilant, wholesome, happy spirit and he describes her spirit or her essence as her music, ”Jazz.” therefore being the “ Jazz Chick.”
For example, Kaufman uses many descriptive words to paint the imagery in our minds. “Music from her breast, vibrating ,Sound seared into burnished velvet. Silent hips deceiving fools,” is how the poem starts out. Automatically you get the image of a woman with a presence so strong that emanates through everyone in the room. As the reader, I also get the image of a woman so beautiful that not one person can miss how beautiful she is. From the line about her silent hips deceiving fools, I get that from her body structure the men are turned into fools. They probably can’t help but stare at such beauty and don’t know how to behave themselves.
“Rivulets of trickling ecstasy ,From the alabaster pools of Jazz ,Where music cools
hot souls. Eyes more articulately silent, Than Medusa's thousand tongues.” From these lines I get the image of beautiful soulful jazz music fills the nightclub where everyone is and the music cools down the hormones that are raging throughout the club. Eyes throughout the nightclub are “articulately silent, than medusas thousand tongues.” Here I feel Kaufman is saying that all the eyes in the nightclub are finding the ways to flirt or talk seductively without using words. The comparison to Medusa’s thousand tongues means that the eyes in their “silence,” are louder than any verbalizing could try to accomplish. “A bridge of eyes, consenting smiles reveal her presence singing Of cool remembrance, happy balls Wrapped in swinging Jazz Her music...Jazz.” I feel here the speaker is saying a connection of eyes and approving stares, like men liking what they see in this woman he speaks about reminds them of something comfortable or common, something sweet or close to home. The woman which he speaks about has a jubilant, wholesome, happy spirit and he describes her spirit or her essence as her music, ”Jazz.” therefore being the “ Jazz Chick.”
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
News Report, September 1991 by Denise Levertov
Denise Levertov's poem, " News Report, September 1991," is a collection of quotes from different news reports having to do with the U.S. burying Iraqi soldiers alive in the Gulf War. The very first line says in bold, capitalized letters, "U.S. BURIED IRAQI SOLDIERS ALIVE IN GULF WAR." After this line there is a space and more quotes follow but in lowercase words. I think that because this line was capitalized and spaced away from the other quotes it was done intentionally to give us the main idea, raw and uncut. This is the very first image in our minds, that iraqi soldiers were buried alive by U.S. soldiers in the Gulf War. This really stands out. As we continue to read the rest of the poem, other lines tend to stand out. For example in the next few lines:
"What you saw was a
bunch of trenches with
arms sticking out."
Here we see such a stark image portrayed to us. It is a very impersonal, cold tone that comes with the description of " a bunch of trenches with arms sticking out." The speaker leaves her voice out of the poem and uses newspaper quotes from a collection of different articles, but we see how she points out how impersonal some of these quotes were about these people who died. I mean these are people and they just called them " a buncha trenches."
In the next few lines we see that certain words are all alone on lines by themselves, such as :defiant" and "buried." These words serve a purpose in the poem. They are making a point. These lines are followed by " carefully planned and rehearsed," showing that the Americans carefully planned out this assasination of Irai soldiers. It shows that American soldiers contemplated this attack and really thought out how they were going to kill these soldiers.
"Defiant."
"Buried."
"Carefully planned and
rehearsed."
"When we
went through there wasn't
anybody left."
The poem follows to say that when they went through there ( the Americans) there wasn't anyone left there. Reporters were even banned from this place and made a point to put that no American soldiers were killed. Americans suceded without one casualty. This means that they wiped out these Iraqi soldiers and not one American Soldier died not even while the Iraqi soldiers were probably defending themselves.
"Awarded
Silver Star."
"Reporters
banned."
"Not a single
American killed."
The poem then goes on to say that the body count was "impossible," giving us the feeling that it was impossible to get a count of exactly how many people died because there were so many people who died. They couldn't keep track. I also got the feeling that the Americans made it out to seem like this was something small compared to another time that they killed a lot more people. I get that feeling from these lines:
"I know
burying people
like that sounds
pretty nasty, said
Colonel Maggart,
But . . . ."
"His force buried
about six hundred
and fifty
in a thinner line
of trenches."
"People's arms
sticking out."
These lines give the impression that the killing of the Iraqi soldiers was no big deal.Again, pointed out to the reader, is that these people killed were " trenches with arms sticking out."
I'm not
going to sacrifice
the lives
of my soldiers,
Moreno said, it's not
cost-effective."
After reading these lines, I got the sense not only were the killings of the Iraqi soldiers made to be no big deal and gave this impersonal feel but even when speaking about American soldiers,a sargeant says he wouldn't sacrifice the lives of his soldiers but follows up the statement with it's not cost effective. It kinda gives the feel that the lives of American soldiers were just as invaluable or impersonal as well because of the comparison to what isn't or what is cost efficient.
"The tactic was designed
to terrorize,
Lieutenant Colonel Hawkins
said, who helped
devise it."
This tactic of killing the soldiers was made to terrorize them.
A lot of the guys
were scared, he said,
but I
enjoyed it."
"A bunch of
trenches. People's
arms and things
sticking out."
"Cost-effective."
Someone speaks about the grusome ways the Iraqi soldiers had died and says alot of guys were scared but he enjoyed it... He enjoyed seeing the trenches ( the bodies) with their arms sticking out. He enjoyed killing these Iraqi soldiers, burying them alive. That says a lot about a person's morality and character. To say you enjoyed killing someone else while they were terrorized by your actions is inhumane.It's cold. and again we see the quote that repeats itself " a buncha trenches with arms sticking out." This poem leaves you with a good sense of imagery and even though the poet doesnt use her own voice we see the points she is trying to make using all of these significant quotes. This poem makes you think about war and how cold someone has to get to be able to kill someone or a bunch of people and not even have any feeling of remorse but yet their feelings are those of enjoyment. I guess when you're away at war you see so much and witness so many deaths that after a while you may become desensitized to what death really is. Is it possible that the American soldiers were desensitized by this point? i think so..
"What you saw was a
bunch of trenches with
arms sticking out."
Here we see such a stark image portrayed to us. It is a very impersonal, cold tone that comes with the description of " a bunch of trenches with arms sticking out." The speaker leaves her voice out of the poem and uses newspaper quotes from a collection of different articles, but we see how she points out how impersonal some of these quotes were about these people who died. I mean these are people and they just called them " a buncha trenches."
In the next few lines we see that certain words are all alone on lines by themselves, such as :defiant" and "buried." These words serve a purpose in the poem. They are making a point. These lines are followed by " carefully planned and rehearsed," showing that the Americans carefully planned out this assasination of Irai soldiers. It shows that American soldiers contemplated this attack and really thought out how they were going to kill these soldiers.
"Defiant."
"Buried."
"Carefully planned and
rehearsed."
"When we
went through there wasn't
anybody left."
The poem follows to say that when they went through there ( the Americans) there wasn't anyone left there. Reporters were even banned from this place and made a point to put that no American soldiers were killed. Americans suceded without one casualty. This means that they wiped out these Iraqi soldiers and not one American Soldier died not even while the Iraqi soldiers were probably defending themselves.
"Awarded
Silver Star."
"Reporters
banned."
"Not a single
American killed."
The poem then goes on to say that the body count was "impossible," giving us the feeling that it was impossible to get a count of exactly how many people died because there were so many people who died. They couldn't keep track. I also got the feeling that the Americans made it out to seem like this was something small compared to another time that they killed a lot more people. I get that feeling from these lines:
"I know
burying people
like that sounds
pretty nasty, said
Colonel Maggart,
But . . . ."
"His force buried
about six hundred
and fifty
in a thinner line
of trenches."
"People's arms
sticking out."
These lines give the impression that the killing of the Iraqi soldiers was no big deal.Again, pointed out to the reader, is that these people killed were " trenches with arms sticking out."
I'm not
going to sacrifice
the lives
of my soldiers,
Moreno said, it's not
cost-effective."
After reading these lines, I got the sense not only were the killings of the Iraqi soldiers made to be no big deal and gave this impersonal feel but even when speaking about American soldiers,a sargeant says he wouldn't sacrifice the lives of his soldiers but follows up the statement with it's not cost effective. It kinda gives the feel that the lives of American soldiers were just as invaluable or impersonal as well because of the comparison to what isn't or what is cost efficient.
"The tactic was designed
to terrorize,
Lieutenant Colonel Hawkins
said, who helped
devise it."
This tactic of killing the soldiers was made to terrorize them.
A lot of the guys
were scared, he said,
but I
enjoyed it."
"A bunch of
trenches. People's
arms and things
sticking out."
"Cost-effective."
Someone speaks about the grusome ways the Iraqi soldiers had died and says alot of guys were scared but he enjoyed it... He enjoyed seeing the trenches ( the bodies) with their arms sticking out. He enjoyed killing these Iraqi soldiers, burying them alive. That says a lot about a person's morality and character. To say you enjoyed killing someone else while they were terrorized by your actions is inhumane.It's cold. and again we see the quote that repeats itself " a buncha trenches with arms sticking out." This poem leaves you with a good sense of imagery and even though the poet doesnt use her own voice we see the points she is trying to make using all of these significant quotes. This poem makes you think about war and how cold someone has to get to be able to kill someone or a bunch of people and not even have any feeling of remorse but yet their feelings are those of enjoyment. I guess when you're away at war you see so much and witness so many deaths that after a while you may become desensitized to what death really is. Is it possible that the American soldiers were desensitized by this point? i think so..
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