Linda Pastan Judgement

No one likes to be judged, whether the judgement is good or bad. People in general are already critical of themselves to have the time to be critical of others, but, people seem to have found toe time to do it. In Linda Pastan’s “Marks’, the mother receives judgement in the form of grades from her family members. The last two lines of the poems could be read one of two ways, of that of indignance or melancholy. One outcome that people would expect is for her to kill herself, but as the reader, my belief goes far past that. Due to the tone of this poem, it is in firm belief that the mother could have in fact be leaving her family to start a new life outside the judgement of her family.

A’s, incompletes, “could improve” and a simple pass or

fail scenario is how this family judges their mother, and by the tone of this poem, you can tell she is tired of it. The mother can be both tired of all the work she does for her family on top of all the grades she seems to be receiving for her work on top of it. The tone seems to shift a few times in the poem. “My husband gives me an A/for last nights supper” (1-2), giving off a rather light tone, before it completely shifts to a tone of melancholy as soon as the mother states “an incomplete for my ironing/a B plus in bed” (3-4). It keeps this melancholy tone throughout the length of the poem until we reach the last two lines in the verse stating “Wait ‘til they learn/I’m dropping out” (11-12). The last two lines give off a tone of indignancy.

The speaker of this poem is that of the mother, but other than that, anonymity is given. Due to the nature of this essay, the author has used the invented I in this poem to translate the speaker’s attitude. The speaker seems fed up with the grading system the family has placed on her and her work as a mother. We are given the implication that her family doesn’t care how and what she feels outside of the family house work, and even then, she is graded on how well she does on those tasks.

Instead of using similes or metaphors filtered throughout the verse, the verse itself is that of one big metaphor. Each family member uses a different grading system on the mother, giving off the impression that she is in school, when in real life, she is just a simple housewife. She is caring for her family as any mother would and instead giving thanks, the family is giving her critiques and on how she could improve. “I’m dropping out” (12) gives the last reference to school. It is through this line that we are given the feeling that she has given up on this life with her family and is ready for something else.

Even though this poem is melancholy in nature, it is in the tones of this poems that reveal that she doesn’t kill herself but instead just leaves the family. She is tired of waiting on them hand and foot only to receive passing grades. That is not what family is about. We should in fact be grateful for anything a mother does, because she does it out of love and it should be given back the same way, not in the way of passing grades as if she were in school.