Dorothy Parker's Resume and One Perfect Rose

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Recommended: Duality between Dorothy Parker and her writing

In dealing with depression, alcoholism, and suicide, Dorothy Parker turned to writing to escape from herself. Through out her life, she struggled between the idea of life versus death, which has a major impact on Dorothy’s handful of books, filled with poems. In “Resume” and “One Perfect Rose” Parker recalls personal events to integrate her world of fiction and wit with reality. In all of her work, Dorothy Parker illuminates her poetry with wit, imagery, and symbolism to convey that wealth and privilege do not provide comfort of one’s soul in death.
Although Parker has many supporters and role models, such as Martin Luther King Jr., she frequently writes metaphors about her failed suicide attempts. Despite her success in writing and as well as the movie business, fifteen movies have been attributed in her name since before and now after her death, she was always alone, always unseen. She describes this pain in “Resume” as she tells the reader all they ways she has attempted suicide and yet she jokes , “you might as well live”(Parker). Parker points out that life is easier than finding the escape from it, she suggests that nothing can stand up to the will one has for oneself and even though she has made mistakes and has danced with the devil quite a few times she concludes that the pain of taking a life is not worth a single effort.
“Resume” is essentially a list of ideas against suicide, and by the end of the poem Parker proposes to the reader that there are no positives to the situation at hand and that one should just give up now. Although she writes about her once dark feelings, the change in tone from dark to humorous shows the range this author can portray eloquently. In this particular poem the author uses irony to give an image of nonchalance towards the options and choices one has everyday, to get up every day or just lie down and give up, the only thing keeping this person alive is the realization that killing oneself is much more tedious than staying alive.
On the other side of the spectrum Parker tells a story of an occasion where she received a single rose from an unknown lover. This poem is a love story but as the author suggests it is not a normal love story, the speaker wants more than the customary roses and romanticism every relationship has.

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