Analysis for Barbie Doll and Birthmark
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this was one of the biggest points made throughout the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and the short story “Birth Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both “Birth Mark” and “Barbie Doll” showed the struggle of two women to satisfy their peers and fit into the generic beauty image that has been created by society. The two readings each portrayed a young woman who lost her soul in the process of trying desperately trying to gain approval. Each lost their soul from what began as a small spark which continued into a domino effect. That spark was beauty; the power of being beautiful had a strong hold on them. They were both beautiful in their special way, for example Georgina was attractive, while the girl from the poem was intelligent which is a form of beauty in its own way. Then it transitioned into social acceptance, they both were very keen of being acknowledged by their peers. In “Barbie Doll” she worked so hard to get accepted by exercising, being friendly and always smiling just to fit the “mold”. In “Birth Mark” Georgina wanted her husband to accept her, but was never able to do enough so she had her birth mark removed. Lastly the most important thing was that both the characters did not think highly of themselves. Each thought of themselves as below average and not worthy, which lead to their demise.
Both the story and the poem authors uses symbolism to represent their ideas. In “The Birth Mark” the author uses a birthmark in the shape of a hand that represents the beauty in Gods creation. Georgina was a beautiful woman with a birthmark that many people loved, especially men. Some of them dreamed of touching her birthmark, and they thought that she was unique because of that. Woman would be jealous of this and took the birthmark as an excuse to avoid her true beauty, and that little imperfection superseded all of her other wonderful qualities. On the opposite side, other men were afraid to look at her; they saw her birthmark and immediately ran away, wishing it would disappear. Aylmer, her husband, was among those who disliked the birthmark. Not only he dislike it but he was obsessed with removing it. In a way the birthmark was kind of a threat for Aylmer, knowing that most men find it attractive and charming, this birthmark was a reminder to his fear of her maybe looking at other man and potential cheating on him.
In the poem, the author uses the title “Barbie Doll”, which is an American doll that is tall, has blond hair, blue eyes, with perfect facial and body features and no imperfections about them. In the poem, the girl tried very hard to be just like the doll. The unnamed girl was beautiful, “she was healthy, tested intelligent,” which are beautiful traits in their own way. The unnamed girl seemed to have grown up as a normal child, the author mentions traditional toys, such as “dolls that did pee-pee”, “miniature GE stove and irons” and “wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” in the first stanza of the poem. All these toys represent her early childhood; these toys have been there from generations after generations and are common for young girls to play with. She was raised to be a kind person, someone who would never hurt any ones feelings so “she went to and fro apologizing”. She was well taking care of, smart, and confident. All these good qualities made her beautiful, but the physical appearance set her apart from the rest of the children in a negative manner.
Both Georgina from “The Birthmark” and the unnamed girl from the “Barbie Doll” were beautiful people. Both grew up knowing and believing in their true beauty, but were not fully accepted by everyone else. Although similar in sharing the same self reflection, they were different in the fact that Georgina was loved by most people except her husband which had an obsession in removing a big part of her natural beauty. The unnamed girls beauty came from within; she seemed beautiful because of her inner beauty. She was attractive because of the values she learned growing up, for her intelligence and the abilities she was good at.
In the second stanza of “Barbie Doll” the author described the way the unnamed girl was raised. In this part of her life she was thought to be confident in herself, therefore she was very secure of herself. Unfortunately during the “magic of puberty” she was convinced otherwise. Throughout this time of development, her body changed drastically, some in good ways and some others in bad way. For her it was not so great, and the people around her made her very