Barbie Doll poem help please!!!?

Question

Ok i have to analyze a poem and write a five page paper i chose this poem called Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy. Can you please give me some ideas on what to put in my intro paragraph. how should i start my introduction?? Any ideas for a hook. Any other help would be great also!

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-do…

Thank You !

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

You should probably focus on something clearly related to the primary point of the poem, which is clearly a feminist poem. In the first part of the first stanza, note the parents' attempt to make the girl feminine and to train her for her role as a wife and mother.

The second stanza features a variety of statements that are favorable when they apply to men. Of course, the end is ironic in that the girl ends up looking pretty (and thus achieving the goal of women, according to the poem) only after she kills herself and is made up by the mortician.

Now, regarding your introduction, I think it's a good idea to have an introduction that gives an outline of what is to follow. And you probably won't know that until you've written the rest of the paper. So start by figuring out what in particular you want to write about in the poem. Choosing the obvious probably won't be a great idea, and choosing too broad a topic could force you into being too vague. So you might choose to focus on the particulars of the language and how the language itself reflects the themes of the poem. Or you might instead choose another topic, of course.

Good luck.

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Asker's Comment:

thanks!!!

Answer 2

IMHO, this poem actually reflects our very world this moment. The entire world is obsessed with being model-like figures- or in this case, Barbie-like (since Barbie is supposed to be the epitome of a perfect woman's figure).

I'd suggest that you start of with a humourous introduction: About how much women are willing to spend to beautify themselves, and the time the spent on it. How men complain that this burns a hole through their pockets, and their bums burn a hole through the couch while waiting for the women to prepare themselves for a date. Then turn the last sentence into a serious note to reveal how this is actually affecting our lives negatively.

Questions to focus on:
1. How does it affect the psychology of young girls? (what happens when they become obsessed with their beauty? Anorexia? Multiple cosmetic surgeries- the side effects of them? Michael Jackson?)
2. How does it affect the health? (multiple organ failures, etc.)

Look up the list of international models who died due to anorexia and bulemia and the fact that there are authorities who pose a ban on models who are too light- to counter the whole stick-thin is good idea.

Don't forget to insert statistics of girls affected by this, statistics of death due to this issue, etc.. Look out for campaigns that are anti-Barbie image etc.

This can be one persuasive paper. Best of luck!