compare and contrast

In chapter 23, “Making Men and Women”, tells the general idea of the subject matter behind the works of writing. The poems being discussed all have the expectations of how men and/or women should portray themselves to be. In the first poem “General Review of the Sex Situation”, by Dorothy Parker, brings out a sarcastic outlook on the roles of men and women and makes an unhappy viewpoint of sex by the point of view of men and women. She puts standards out to men and women and is stereotypical about the types of relationships and love and states her opinion in an arrogant way hoping to make her readers feel the same way.
This poem may be about what she was taught growing up and how she feels about sex and love from her experiences which all of society can relate too. The next poem, “Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy, is a stand point of what society holds on individuals lives especially women telling us how to dress, how to act, and having to be a certain way to be accepted. The title of the poem isn’t about the childhood toy but as a stereotype of what a women she look like, like having the perfect body and beautiful features. The main character in the poem was too caught up on society’s expectations of how she should portray herself in private and public she was blinded away from her chance to live and be happy and be herself.
“She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile, wheedle. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt.” The last poem, “Women’s Work”, by Julie Alvarez, speaks out against women playing merely a domestic role in family life. The daughter of the mother is the speaker and because she doesn’t work outside the house she is forced to do chores in the home even as she hears her friends pla...

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...ut a girl in American making sense of who she is and trying to find her American identity as though she too is an immigrant from muti-cultural decent, and the last is about the discrimination against Mexicans that get jobs in America and the jealousy Americans feel as they are below the totem pole when its their country and not the Mexicans.
In response to this research essay, these poems have a strong meaning behind them all, some more than others, but I was put in the speaker’s shoes as I read and analyzed each and every poem. In conclusion, the themes of the poems relating to the title of the chapters have the same key aspects, but as the poem’s theme as one, each and every poem tells its own story and each and every author has there own spin and reality thrown into their works of writing. Not any two poems had the same themes but yet the same subject matter.