Perception Of Beauty In Sandra Cisneros 'Barbie-Q'

1272 Words3 Pages

Perception of beauty is - beauty is one of a kind. The tone of "Barbie-Q,” is of children in an imaginary setting of the future. This short story exemplifies Eros, love for themselves and personal image of girl's body. The meaning of beauty of Sandra Cisneros short the story "Barbie-Q,” shows how beauty is grown because the author expresses her rooted culture, how girls see themselves and the future girls see when they are all grown up.
The short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros has many reflections on cultural diversity and how each culture views its own individual beauty of women and girls which is cultural beauty. Women value culture and the beauty it represents. In the short story "Barbie-Q, "p. 205 (line 1 ) , Sandra Cisneros reveals …show more content…

206 paragraph one, (line 1), Sandra Cisneros reveals a model of how girls see themselves in the future. The girls felt the dolls represent the same story and scenario each time they came together and play with each other. The attitude, style and quality of dolls. The interchanging of clothes, character's likes and dislikes as depicted the deception by a doll; from a child's point of view. The girls noticed that when the male Barbie doll drops by the other Barbie would steal him away. A typical boy meets girls; girl thinks boy is cute; boy leaves with the opposite girl. This is a reflected of Sandra Cisneros’s short story "Barbie-Q, "p. 206 , paragraph 1 , (line 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 ) . The girls are tired of the social scene the boy Barbie represents. They only want to play among themselves without any boys. The girls enjoyed looking forward to Christmas and receiving gifts of clothes for their Barbie dolls. This is also, reflected in the insults the girls shared among their future Barbie dolls. In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros, the girls enjoyed going to the flea market, purchasing used clothes for Barbie dolls. Barbie dolls meant so much to the two little girls because they didn't care if their Barbie dolls were wearing hand-me-downs; second hand doll clothing sold alongside the street. The joy came from undressing and dressing up the dolls. The girls even found career clothes to match up to their doll's future. In the short …show more content…

In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros, the young girls didn't mind they did not receive other things such as new Barbie's or Ken Barbie's and the friends to go along with the dolls (206). These girls were just happy to play with their own dolls. The girls have bonded with each other and they enjoy playing with each other's dolls. A doll brings two or more children together for fun and social entertainment. Have you ever listened to a child frequently you will hear a child say " so what” that means the child really don't care, it don't matter; nothing else mattered to the two little girls. In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros to purchase a brand new Barbie doll meant that the dolls are expensive in the store so the girls are very happy and pleased to own a second hand Barbie. When the parent places the dolls in the child's hands the dolls take on the character of the owner's beauty; culture; how girls see themselves and the future when the kids are all grown up. Barbie is a fun toy to dress up. Each child has her or his own imagination of a Barbie doll. I, too, myself, like watching all the different cultural background Barbie dolls in the malls or Macy's Department Store around Christmas times. Most large department stores dress

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Barbie Q By Sandra Cisneros

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    As people grow up and experience life more and more, their personalities are revealed more. In the story “Barbie-Q”, Sandra Cisneros describes what it feels like to still be searching for one's identity. “Barbie-Q” is about a little girl and her sister that have dolls that don’t compare to others. There Barbies don’t have new dresses, and fancy red stilettos, but instead they have homemade sock dresses, and bubbleheads. This changes when these two girls go to a flea market, and find new dolls that were damaged in a fire. They may have been damaged with water and had melted limbs but it still meant a lot to these little girls. Sandra Cisneros expresses how these girls have struggled with self identity and how they have finally came to be there

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Our Barbies Ourselves By Prager

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    “If Barbie was designed by a man, suddenly a lot of things made sense to me,” says Emily Prager in her essay “Our Barbies, Ourselves” (Prager 354). Prager’s purpose for writing this essay is to explain the history of Barbie and how the doll itself has influenced and continue to influence our society today. Prager is appealing to the average girl, to those who can relate to the way she felt growing up with Barbie seen as the ideal woman. Emily Prager uses a constant shift between a formal and informal tone to effectively communicate her ideas that we view women today based upon the unrealistic expectations set forth by Barbie. By adopting this strategy she avoids making readers feel attacked and therefore

    Read More

  • Barbie-Q, by Sandra Cisneros

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Barbie-Q,” Sandra Cisneros chooses a particular point of view in order to communicate the central points of this story. The story is narrated by one of the two young girls who are the main characters. The story begins with the following: “Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail.” “Mine is the one with bubble hair.” (Cisneros 576) This clearly shows that the narrator is indeed one of the girls. Another part of the story reads, “Every time the same story. Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and your Barbie steals him,” (576) This again shows that the narrator is one of the young girls because she uses words like mine and yours. There are also many other instances throughout the story that prove she is the narrator.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Barbie-Q by Sandra Cisneros

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cisneros' Barbie-Q really stood out as a great piece of literature. Barbie-Q is a quick glimpse into the life of a poverty-stricken child and her way of life. Though my life as of yet has been rather short, my earliest childhood memories are overwhelmingly my fondest and her account really struck a chord. Sandra Cisneros' accurate reflection of a young mind and intricate writing methods expressed great emotion. Her portrayal of a child's mentality evoked my childhood recollections while her realistic tale of childhood bliss in the midst of poverty caused great empathy on my part making this my preferred work we studied.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Salvador Late Or Early By Sandra Cisneros

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator is a young girl from a lower class neighborhood, who has difficulty affording new toys and accessories that are a necessity for her reputation around her friend group. In the story, she explains, “So what if our Barbie’s smell like smoke when you hold them up to your nose even after you wash them and wash them and wash them.” (Barbie Q). This quote infers that the narrator is upset with the circumstances she has around getting new dolls, and that she doesn’t care that her toys come reused from a neighborhood market. Throughout the story, the author uses figurative language to describe the way poverty can affect the childhood innocence of the narrator. Even though we can infer that the girl is from a lower class neighborhood, the narrator still explains that she is able to be creative in solving problems from economic difficulty. As the girl is playing with her dolls, she says, “This and a dress invented from an old sock when we cut holes here, here, and here, the cuff rolled over for a glamorous, fancy free, off the shoulder look.” (Barbie Q). From this quote, we can infer that the narrator is from a lower class neighborhood, and is unable to afford new toys, so she improvises by creating her own Barbie fashion. This short story uses figurative language to describe the way childhood innocence is affected through socioeconomic

    Read More

  • Theme Of Barbie-Q By Sandra Cisneros

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cisneros makes a sensible character. The young lady's inspired activity is the longing to have the Barbie dolls. While playing with the old dolls, the young lady relates a story of two Barbies. This story of the hero's Barbie losing the fanciful Ken doll to an alternate young lady's Barbie uncovers the kid's disappointment also outrage at what she doesn't have which makes her feel subpar. This parallel to genuine living shows the kid's need of additional Barbies, regardless of the possibility that they are not flawless. In life you should see the positives of what you have regardless of social class, and not what you can’t have, but one should strive to get what you want to have.

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's Barbie Doll

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    The treatment of females from the 18th century through the 21st century have only gotten worse due to society’s ignorant judgment of the gender. Of which, is the change from the previous housewife like actions to the modern day body figure. This repulsive transaction is perceived throughout literature. From the 19th century’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 and the 20th century’s poem, “Barbie Doll” composed by Marge Piercy in 1971.

    Read More

  • Sandra Cisneros Barbie-Q

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    The little girls wanting Barbies with perfect outfits goes with the “ideal” image a girl should have at a young age. They are influenced by society to like playing with Barbies, to like the colour pink, to basically become a girl in society’s point of view. Cisneros is showing the development of children and how they’re made to play their roles in society. The author is trying to show how girls don’t really have a choice in how they’re guided towards liking “girl things”. The story shows the reality of women and how their opportunities are limited by things that are out of control like being born into poverty and have to live below an average lifestyle, “So what if our Barbies smell like smoke when you hold them up to your nose even after you wash and wash and wash them” (Cisneros, 1991, p.448). This pertains to the inequality in the work place, government, how some women are limited because of their gender and are prevented from becoming a successful

    Read More

  • Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we see the effect that society has on the expectations of women. A woman, like the girl described in ‘Barbie Doll’, should be perfect. She should know how to cook and clean, but most importantly be attractive according to the impossible stereotypes of womanly beauty. Many women in today’s society are compared to the unrealistic life and form of the doll. The doll, throughout many years, has transformed itself from a popular toy to a role model for actual women. The extremes to which women take this role model are implicated in this short, yet truthful poem.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Barbie-Q By Sandra Cisneros

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    The girls feel that people need to mask their imperfections and true selves to uphold the image of how they are supposed to be. These dolls were found in a less than desirable place, such as “Lying on the street next to some tool bits ,and platform shoes with the heels all squashed, and a florescent green wicker wastebasket, and aluminum foil, and hubcaps, and a pink shag rug, and windshield wiper blades, and dusty mason jars, and a coffee can full of rusty nails”. They find another Barbie with heals in the depths of junk. They cover up the physical flaws of the burnt barbies with pretty outfits such as the “Prom Pinks” dress. One of the girls state “as long as you don't lift her dress, right? - who’s to know.” This attempt to cover up where the dolls came from and their imperfections seem to parallel their feelings about themselves and where they come from. The girls have an image of how their dolls would be if they were new. This could be the role society plays on the image of how women are supposed to be and look

    Read More

  • Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll

    1441 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every woman grows up knowing that they one day want to be beautiful. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she gives an in depth look at what negative effects the concept of beauty can have on an individual. From infancy to a full grown adult woman, beauty has been a way of thinking and lifestyle. As a little girl you are given petite shaped, blonde, blue eyed dolls. While boys are given brawny soldiers and mechanical toys.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

    1681 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, pleasurable and unpleasurable imagery is given so that the reader can see the extremes girls go through to be considered perfect.

    Read More

  • The Pros and Cons of Barbie

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us. New York: Penguin Group, 2010. Print.

    Read More

  • Berger And Luckmann's The Social Construction Of Reality?

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    It may seem trivial and go unnoticed to most, but by assigning Barbie a real career, people are able to identify with and recognize her. The marketers also provide Barbie with a life other than modeling, such as friends and a home. The Ken doll, which is commonly known as Barbie’s boyfriend, makes her appear more real to the audience. Girls are able to identify with the idea of a boyfriend, which makes the notion of Barbie seem more realistic and desirable. The same idea is applied to the many friends Barbie has been accompanied by over the years. Lastly, and perhaps most famously, Barbie, like almost all of the girls who play with her, have a home. The Barbie Dream House is just another clever way her marketing team has presented her to society as a real person. Humanizing Barbie, and portraying her in such a manner makes her more attractive to potential buyers. The girls who engage in play with dolls do not want merely a doll; they desire something they can relate to and envision in the real world. Imaginative play is a large portion of childhood, and the ability for children to posses a doll like Barbie , who represents a real person in society, is extremely valuable. The use of social constructionism in the marketing of products such as Barbie is both brilliant and effective.

    Read More

  • Descriptive Essay On The Toy Store

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nor did I totally grasp the grim realities of how race and culture at times co-exist. Barbie, herself, established a sort of cultural barrier, where race, beauty, and culture intertwined. Her impact on culture is profound and has been influential in many areas of existence. Why was it important for me to choose the black Barbie? Was it culturally correct to do so? The premise of this paper is to address whether Barbie, the inanimate object everyone adores, contributes to the social segregation of our

    Read More

More about Perception Of Beauty In Sandra Cisneros 'Barbie-Q'

Open Document