Barbie Doll Figurative Language

Figurative Language Prompt 3
Both “Siren Song” and “Barbie Doll” deal with the relationship between the individual human being and a society that imposes a dehumanizing conformity. Both poems also use their use of irony conveying between the human being and society, for example “Siren Song” has some use of verbal irony and situational irony in the sense that if the reader knew what a siren was, then they would know that it’s a warning and them being lured into this siren’s song would only result in death. “Barbie Doll” also uses verbal irony and situational irony when the poem speaks that the effort of making oneself look pretty and conform to society’s expectations only results in making oneself look worse and lose humanity.
To begin with,

the poem “Siren Song” uses verbal irony in line 16, “with these feathery maniacs”. Society for the siren makes the sirens out to be as nothing more than evil creatures, but in this line, the siren had been talking to the reader as a human being, as a creature that is sophisticated. The irony in this line, the author describes her fellow sirens as the creature that society sees them as when she herself is exactly the same. This reveals how society has imposed this image of sirens being ugly creatures and that sirens themselves see themselves as dehumanizing themselves when they are perfectly capable of being human. In this poem, it also buses situational irony, the entire time the reader sympathizes with the siren and wants to know what is wrong and how the reader can help, but the siren end up killing the whatever or whoever it is addressing anyway. The irony of the siren singing a song of lamenting the woes of having to sing, and then using that very song to kill sailors shows that despite what an individual might say or do, in the end society is going to explode and begin saying things, and it usually takes away whatever humanity one had. By conforming to what is expected of the siren, the siren loses any trace of humanity she might have had. With these types of irony used in the poem readers would think about that this can be anyone and ironically when siren comes to mind, it usually refers to something or someone ending in death.
Secondly, the poem “Barbie Doll” also has use of verbal irony, the author begins her poem with, “the magic of puberty”, a phrase that would make many readers read it again to understand that they just read what they read.

The author’s choice of “magic” is what makes this phrase ironic, because it has a positive connotation that clashes with the negative connotation of puberty. It makes the reader feel like society is saying that puberty is just this gift from God that it just happens, and it serves to give this idea of dehumanization. The girl in the poem only wants to be even more perfect and further drives her to change the way she looks. If society had looked at puberty in a more human attribute, maybe the girl would not have been so driven to perfect herself because she would understand that it’s a part of being human. This dehumanization results in “a turned up putty nose”, and the verbal irony is that in context for society, that is beauty, but to any reader the image of a turned up nose that is made out of play dough is disgusting. This poem also uses situational irony, because the image of a girl lying “In the casket displayed on satin” is no more different than a lifeless barbie doll sitting in her box on a store shelf. The ideal woman as pictured by society is something that ends up not being human at all. One would not expect death to produce something beautiful, it is when she dies that she can be displayed and drawn on to perfection, a beauty in everyone’s

eyes. The cost of looking good, of conforming to society’s standards, is death. More of a death to one’s individuality.
All in all, these two poems “Siren Song” and Barbie Doll” both show the relationship between the individual human being and society that dehumanizes conformity. They both also have their uses of irony conveying this theme, they both use verbal irony and situational irony. “Siren Song” conveys that the reader would automatically think about death, and society depicts a siren being ugly and not knowing how someone can feel that way on the inside. “Barbie Doll” conveys that society pushes people to be perfect until they suddenly drive themselves to the death.