Reflection Time: First Semester (Barbie Doll)

I chose to reflect on “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy. Even though the character in the story “was healthy, tested intelligent, / possessed strong arms and back, / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity…everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (Piercy 7-9, 11). Although the girl in the poem posses good qualities, they are personality traits most associated with males, and therefore, undesirable for a girl. All the criticism the girl receives causes her to commit suicide and mutilate her body. At the funeral, while everyone is looking at the girl in the casket, they say, “doesn’t she look pretty” (Piercy 23)? They can only find beauty in her mutilated body, and compliment her when it is too late.

Growing up, I often faced problems with anorexia and body image issues. I was often bullied, like the girl in “Barbie Doll,” for not looking like how others wanted me to look. I got teased for being a bit overweight and not having blue eyes and blond hair like everyone else. When I began to lose weight, I still saw myself as fat when I looked in the mirror. It took me a while to be confident in myself, and embrace the other good qualities I have. We often judge a book by its cover instead of looking beyond the surface. In a world that focuses on images rather than personalities, we are forced to conform to what others want in order to escape judgment. 

Reflection Time: My Choice

My Choice Reflection

            Ender Ady really captivated me with his poem “I Should Love to be Loved” with his style of writing. He is able to distinguish his character’s relationship with others from the very beginning of the poem by saying, “I am neither infant nor happy grandfather
/ Nor parent, nor lover
/ Of anyone, of anyone” (1-3). I really liked how he casually eliminated relationships that his character could have in each line at the beginning of the poem. By taking away these basic relationships, Endre Ady’s character appears alone, and lost.

Further portraying Endre Ady’s character as lost, Endre Ady repeats himself twice at the each of each stanza. At the end of the poem, the character says, “I wish to be of someone, I wish to be of / someone,” which not only sounds like an echo, but also a desperate call to find someone who will care about him. Since he has no one, Endre Ady’s character just wants to find someone who will show the slightest bit of interest in him because he wants to be finally noticed.

Finally, throughout the entire poem, Endre Ady has his character desperately try and be noticed by those who are around him. He says, “I should like to show myself to the world, /
So that someone sees me, so that someone sees me. / This is why I sing and I torment myself” (9-11). Endre Ady has his character make obvious cries for attention because he wants the reader to get how desperate his character is to be noticed, and how he is done living his currently lonely lifestyle. Endre Ady displays his character’s entire life by using different writing styles such as repeating himself.