An Analysis of To Have without Holding by Marge Piercy The poem "To Have without Holding," by Marge Piercy, is about the speaker trying to reconcile the conflict between her preconceived notion of a personal relationship with present reality. Her partner, whom she must feel worth the pain and effort, apparently has a more liberal and open approach, which causes her to feel insecure. The poem expresses, using metaphor, simile, and symbolism, the speaker's discomfort at a point in time in this
Personal Response to Marge Piercy's A Work of Artifice My initial response to "A Work of Artifice" by Marge Piercy, was one of profound sadness. In defining myself as the actual reader of this poem, my background becomes significant in my emotional response. "It is this reader who comes to the text shaped by cultural and personal norms and prejudices." (Bressler, p. 72) I come from a family of poets and published writers and have been reading and composing poetry since the age of 4. My first
Society has a way of placing unrealistic expectations on women. By using television, magazines, billboards, and even toys we see a mold of what women are supposed to look like. In other words the perfect woman should look like a Barbie Doll. In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we find a girl child growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. Piercy uses lots of imagery to describe the struggles the girl experiences during her teenage years and the effects that
Marge Piercy’s “The Secretary Chant” begins the poem by describing different parts of her body as office supplies. In line one she states that “My hips are a desk.” In line two and three she says “From my ears hang/ chains of paper clips.”(2) In line four she also continues with “Rubber bands form my hair.”(3) I feel like Piercy’s goal by starting off the poem in this way, was to help emphasize the speakers frustrations toward her job right away. I also feel that by comparing the speakers body
Barbie Doll’ written by Marge Piercy (1973) 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
Plato's Allegory of a Cave, Wachowski's Matrix, and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time Plato's Allegory of a Cave is a story about prisoners that are chained underground, who can not see anything except for shadows caste on a wall by a fire. The only thing that these prisoners can see is the shadows of people. Eventually, one of the prisoners breaks free of the chain and ventures out into the real world. In the real world the freed prisoner discovers that the shadows in the cave are created
Mirror Images in Cat in the Rain The opening paragraph of "Cat in the Rain" presented itself as a vivid painting, with Hemingway being the artist mentioned (Hemmingway, 167). This was the first in a series of mirrors that Hemingway placed in this short story. Reading this story was like being placed in a mirrored room, each mirrored wall being an element of the story reflecting upon another. The reflection of Hemingway and the painter in the first paragraph was the first parallel that
Imagery, Language, and Sound in What's That Smell in the Kitchen? Marge Piercy is an American novelist, essayist, and poet best known for writing with a trademark feminist slant. In "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?" Marge Piercy explores the way women are sometimes held in low esteem by men through the eyes of a tired housewife who has had it with her monotonous day- to-day duties. In this poem, it is not stated that the speaker is a homemaker, but the reader is told about one woman in particular
Figurative Language in A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy "A clever trick, crafty device, or stratagem" is how Webster's Encyclopedia of Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines Artifice. Marge Piercy definitely used "crafty" techniques in writing "A Work of Artifice." In this poem, Piercy reflects on the growth of a bonsai tree, considering the molded existence of what it is to what it could have naturally been. With deeper analysis of this poem, the correlation between a bonsai
of Literature: Feminism Within The Simpsons Seeking to institute equal opportunities for women, Lisa Simpson, a character from the animated television series The Simpsons, persistently promotes the rights and equality of women. The mother figure, Marge Simpson, is Lisa’s opposing female role when it comes to advocating feminism. In this show, both characters provide insight into the stereotypes of suffrage and domesticity in American culture. Homer Simpson, on the other hand, gives the viewer an
Family Referral Today I received a referral from a family who is seeking help regarding their dysfunctional family structure. The Simpson’s are a nuclear family that is having difficulties living as a family. I have already spoken to Marge Simpson and agreed to find a way to get her husband and children to therapy. She has very high aspirations of attending therapy with her family because she has longed for a “normal” functioning family in which her husband and children interact in a much healthier
Sociology of the Simpsons The definition of what consitutes a “family“ has definatly changed over time. Usually, what constitutes making up a family is relative to a specific culture, but as always, there are exceptions to the rule. Ever since the golden age of television had sprung upon American culture, it has tried to mimic the "ideal" American family through it's programming. Even as early as the 1950's, television producers made programming that would represent what exactly the ideal American
On the show, Lisa is seen to be the smartest in the family; she has a lot more knowledge compared to Homer and Marge. Works Cited Cantor, Paul A. "The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family." Political Theory 27.6 (1999): 734-49. JSTOR. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. Eliezer Van Allen. “An Imperfect Ideal Family.” The Simpsons Archive. Web. 17 April 2014. Neuhaus, Jessamyn. "Marge Simpson, Blue-Haired Housewife: Defining Domesticity on The Simpsons." The Journal of Popular Culture 43.4 (2010):
that I watched them too often or anything). First of all I’ll have to break the characters in two groups, because you cannot compare old people with children. So the first group will be composed of Lisa and Bart (the children) and the second one of Marge and Homer (the parents). Just by taking a glance at the show you see that it portrays the typical image of the “traditional American family” of the last decade: mom stays home to cook, clean and take care of the kids, while the husband provides for
Internet search engine to discover that there are literally millions of Simpsons fan-sites around the world.). The Simpsons themselves are a simple family in a small town in Middle America called Springfield. They are: Homer (loyal but stupid father), Marge (dissatisfied, trapped housewife/mother), Bart (rebellious son), Lisa (unappreciated genius daughter), and Maggie (silent baby). The show also revolves around a number of other of the townsfolk, such as Mr Burns (Homer's miserly boss), Smithers (Burns's
women only serving for the purpose of being housewives and stay home moms. This episode shows how Marge overturned the gender role expectation while it depicts her husband as a fool. In the show, Marge is the housewife who stays home takes care of the children and cooks. Homer chose to vote for Mr. Burns who is a corrupt candidate. However, despite Homer insisting Marge to vote for Mr. Burns, Marge decides to vote for someone else. The fact that her husband does not influence her decision already
throws the little piece of fuel out of the car on his way home. Secondly it shows us Bart writing on the skating board and when bill rings he jumps out of the school skating on air and then crosses the traffic. Thirdly it shows us the mother, Marge Simpson doing her shopping and it also shows us that Maggie got scanned. After that Lisa Simpson comes up in her music class playing her saxophone and also she got kicked out of the class. The sequence ends in a funny way as the whole family sets
Reforming the English Curriculum - Speech Good morning members of the Board of Secondary School Studies, I am here today to speak to you about what I believe is a very important issue - reforming our English curriculum. The goal of the curriculum as it stands today is to produce high quality critical evaluators, with the ability to empathise. I agree whole-heartedly with this objective, but I believe some adjustments made to our curriculum are necessary. While it seems a huge change may
Feminism Within The Simpsons Seeking to institute equal opportunities for women, Lisa Simpson, a self-proclaimed feminist from the animated television series The Simpsons, persistently promotes the rights and equality of women. The mother figure, Marge Simpson, is Lisa’s opposing female role when it comes to advocating feminism. In this show, both characters provide insight into the stereotypes of suffrage and domesticity in American culture. Homer Simpson, on the other hand, gives the viewer an
Marge Piercy and Gwendolyn Brooks are authors of short poems who utilize theme, figurative language and imagery to convey ideas. The poems “Barbie doll” by Marge Piercy and “Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks use literary elements to detail the abstract ideas of self and happiness. Both poems are similar in atmosphere and share general identity concepts, however, they both focus on two separate narratives that can be categorized as a story of societal pressure and one of chosen path. The poems