The Changes of Womanhood in Marge Piercy‘s “The Secretary Chant”

737 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Womens role in literature

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 parts to office supplies, gives the feeling that the speaker is using a form of sarcasm; which explains how much her job is unwillingly becoming apart of her life. In line five She states “My breasts are wells of mimeograph ink”. In the same time period that this poem was published, was also a time when women began to leave there roles as house wives. Breasts are one of the most feminine parts of the body, and by comparing her breasts to mimeograph ink, it seems like she’s saying that her woman hood is being changed as well.

This next part of the poem is a little hard for me to understand....

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Christine Stansell's City Of Women

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Christine Stansell’s City of Women, the main issue discussed is “the misfortunes laboring women suffered and the problems they caused” (xi). Throughout the book, Stansell delves into the different aspects that affected these female New Yorkers’ lives, such as inadequate wages, societal stigmas about women laborers, and the hierarchal class system, within antebellum America. She argues that since the nation’s founding, in 1789, the bedrock of these tribulations working women would be mercilessly exposed to was gender inequality. Women’s opportunities and livelihoods were strongly dependent on the dominant male figure in their life, due to the fact that in that period there was very few available and accepted forms of employment for women. Stansell claims, “Paid work was sparse and unstable. Laboring women were confined within a patriarchal economy predicated on direct dependence on men” (18). As the work continues, she illustrates these women’s desires to break away from their reliance on men, as well as the avenues they took to achieve this desired independence. To help solidify her

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Maid To Order By Barbara Enrenreich

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    I am an eighteen year Black male who grew up in an upper middle class African American family. By no means should it be inferred that I am incapable of performing household duties and chores. Barbra Ehrenreich article “Maid to Order,” offends not only me, but my entire up being. In her article she talks about working as a maid for upper class and upper middle class families. The conclusions and opinions contained in the article were all based upon her personal interactions with the children and wife’s she worked for as well as her observations of the treatment of other maids by the families they were employed by. She takes no prisoners in distain for the matriarchs of upper middle class families. The unbridged she has for upper middle class

    Read More

  • Deborah Tannen’s Marked Women and Virginia Woolf’s Professions for Women

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is as if a window finally cracks open revealing the sun’s rays brightening with the truth that men and women experience different challenges. Deborah Tannen’s Marked Women has to face the music when applied to Virginia Woolf’s Professions for Women. In Tannen’s essay the claim that “[t]here is no unmarked women” has trouble withstanding but manages to hold up Woolf’s position of the battle women fought against the traditional norm to the freedom they can possess.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Appointment Is The Lot Of Women By Lucy Stone

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the speech “Disappointment Is the Lot of Women,” an American Pioneer in the women’s rights movement by the name of Lucy Stone speaks about a significant topic dealing with justice. Lucy Stone focuses her speech on issues relating to gender equality at a Woman’s Rights Convention in Worcester to convince men, women, and those associated with government that women are deserving of their rights. As a well informed orator, Lucy Stone keeps her audience, message, and her own beliefs in mind while using a variety of techniques to justify her cause.

    Read More

  • The Woman's Role in the Early 1900's

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early 1900’s, the woman's role was to stay home, clean and take care of the children. Arthur Miller illustrated the life of the average woman in the 1900’s with the character Linda in Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York in 1915. Arthur Miller’s father owned a clothing company that employed four hundred people, but after the wall street crash his family lost everything and moved to Brooklyn. After graduating in 1932, Miller worked in several small jobs to pay for his tuition, While in college at the University of Michigan he majored in Journalism worked for the student paper. Arthur Millers early career started after his graduation, he wrote The Man Who Had All The Luck in 1940 which won the Theatre Guild’s National Award, In 1946 Miller’s play All My Sons won Him his first Tony Award. In 1948 he wrote Death of A Salesman won him another Tony Award, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Death of A Salesman is the story of Willy Loman and the struggles he faces trying to achieve the “American Dream”, not only for him but for his sons. Willy wants to have a perfect family and a perfect life, but his family and life are know where near perfect which causes him to go into depression and want to kill him self. Due to Willy’s many desperate attempts at suicide he starts to lose his mind, start talking to himself and have flash backs. After Willy’s sons Happy and Biff are turned down for a loan Willy finally goes through with taking his life, and leaves his family with the insurance money to pay of debts so they can live a better life. Willy’s wife Linda plays the submissive role, and just leaves Willy in his own hands. In Death of A Salesman linda represents the...

    Read More

  • The Fat Girl Andre Dubus Analysis

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    the poem then progresses to talking about how the baby when it grew up it was “was healthy,tested intelligent possessed strong arms and back … everyone saw a fat nose and fat legs” in this section of the poem we see how marge piercy tries to indicate that although this girl was “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back” that is not what society saw in her all they saw was “a fat nose and fat legs”. In order for this girl to feel as though she is able to be accepted in the society that she lives in she decided to “cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up…. doesn't she look pretty everyone said consummation at last”. this lastly proves the toll that society continues to have on people especially women the girl in this poem decide to mutilate herself so that she could be accepted into the society where at the end it says that “doesnt she look pretty everyone said consummation at last” this shows the sickness that is society in this

    Read More

  • Women In The 1950s Essay

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 1950s was a time when American life seemed to be in an ideal model for what family should be. People were portrayed as being happy and content with their lives by the meadia. Women and children were seen as being kind and courteous to the other members of society while when the day ended they were all there to support the man of the house. All of this was just a mirage for what was happening under the surface in the minds of everyone during that time as seen through the women, children, and men of this time struggled to fit into the mold that society had made for them.

    Read More

  • The New Women of 1920's

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    As we look around at our women in today’s era, we might ask how did she become so independent, successful, and confidant? Even when I look at my own my mom, she was hired as the first woman to work as a manager at a fortune 500 business, and then created her own business. As well as my friends’ mom, who also has her own business in psychology; accomplishments like these must have originated from somewhere. The answer lies in the 1920’s. A couple years earlier, World War I was waging havoc, killing many men, while allowing women more freedom. The effects of World War I gave birth to the new women, also known as the Flappers, and inspiration for the 19th amendment. The flappers stirred up traditions and launched a new way of living. It soon became very apparent that the new women of the 1920’s helped redefine the social norms of society.

    Read More

  • Women in Pre-1914 Prose

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women in Pre-1914 Prose I am going to show different aspects of women as them being victims, villains and heroes, all throughout the stories. Writers in the 19th Century were writing to a small portion of the audience, as few of them during the time were literate. 19th Century stories were published for many different reasons from today. They wrote to be famous and wrote to make money; these are the same reasons as writing today. But keeping in mind, unlike today, where entertainment is the main factor.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Feminist Analysis

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Ken Kesey builds up a feud between Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched to establish the novel’s climatic attack, a sexist exemplification that powerful women must be subjugated. Women are depicted as emasculators and castrators. The male patients seem to agree with Dale Harding, who states “We are victims of matriarchy here” (56). The patients correlate matriarchy with castration and mutilation, illustrating the dullness and repressiveness of the hospital as a result of a female dominator. The majority of the men in Nurse Ratched’s psychiatric ward have been damaged by relationships with dominant women. For instance, Chief claimed his mother became “Bigger than Papa and me together” (188). Similarly, Billy Bibbit was so afraid of his mother discovering that he engaged in sexual intercourse with Candy that he commit suicide.

    Read More

  • Societies Expectations Exposed In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll” she reveals a trend that is rampant in today’s society. In this poem she allows the reader to have insight to how societies expectations demolish self-worth by comparing oneself to unrealistic expectations. She creates a sense many young women, especially at the coming of age experience: the feeling of not fitting in. In the poem, Piercy implements the use of diction, imagery/symbolism and tone, which exposes the destructive nature of societies expectations placed upon young women.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Gail Godwin's A Sorrowful Woman

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" revolves around a wife and mother who becomes overwhelmed with her husband and child and withdraws from them, gradually shutting them completely out of her life. Unsatisfied with her role as dutiful mother and wife, she tries on other roles, but finds that none of them satisfy her either. She is accustomed to a specific role, and has a difficult time coping when a more extensive array of choices is presented to her. This is made clear in this section of the story.

    Read More

  • Edna St. David Millay Analysis

    971 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I, being born a woman and distressed/ By all the needs and notions of my kind/ Am urged by your propinquity to find/ Your person fair, and feel a certain zest/ To bear your body’s weight upon my breast.” Edna St. Vincent Millay was an openly-bisexual female poet in the 20th century who wrote about the female experience in regards to love and sex, which is evident in poems like “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed”, “Thursday” and “First Fig.” Edna St. Vincent Millay shows us how we can use tone to redefine the relationship between gender and power.

    Read More

  • The Feminist Movement In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

    1372 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marge Piercy is a poet who often writes about women’s movements. During the 1960s, she was involved with Students for a Democratic Society, but her interests in the women’s movement became the focus of her writing. This focus is apparent in her poem ‘Barbie Doll’ where she expresses her feminist views of the image society portrays of the perfect woman. Piercy’s description of the girl in ‘Barbie Doll’ is a reflection of herself and her personal experiences with sexism in life. However, unlike the girlchild in “Barbie Doll,” Piercy did not allow herself to be driven by society’s male driven image of what the perfect woman should be. Instead, she used her writing as a platform to speak out against such sexist stereotypes ("Barbie

    Read More

  • Islamic Feminism in Mohja Kahf's Selected Poems

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the second stanza, the poet says that women are the cause that make her write poems because of the stereotypes against them, which give her a strong desire to challenge. Therefore, she takes women’s stories and writes them in poetry. She describes herself as a “seamstress” and without the dresses of women, she would be a seamstress without work, but her friends give her their dresses (their stori...

    Read More

More about The Changes of Womanhood in Marge Piercy‘s “The Secretary Chant”

Open Document