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Marge Piercy, "Barbie Doll"

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Reading Questions

Text on p. 835 of the full Ninth Edition and p. 619 of the shorter Ninth Edition.

5 10 15 20

This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs. 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. She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up. In the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie. Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending.

Reading Questions

1. Who is the speaker in the poem? Who is the "girlchild"? Is she someone specific or is she representative of girls in general? Who is the listener?

2. What is the narrator's point of view? How do you know?

3. What is the tone of the poem? What images or lines lead you to your opinion?

4. When she got older, what should be the concerns of the girlchild in the poem as reflected in her toys?

5. As a teen, what were her attributes? What did one of her classmates say to her that negated all of those positive things?

6. For what did she go about apologizing? What influence did her apology have on how people saw her?

7. How is she encouraged to behave? How does that run contrary to her natural behavior?

8. What does she do as a result of not being able to live up to what others want of her?

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