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Analysis of Barbie-Q by Sandra Cisneros
Cisneros' Barbie-Q really stood out as a great piece of literature. Barbie-Q is a quick glimpse into the life of a poverty-stricken child and her way of life. Though my life as of yet has been rather short, my earliest childhood memories are overwhelmingly my fondest and her account really struck a chord. Sandra Cisneros' accurate reflection of a young mind and intricate writing methods expressed great emotion. Her portrayal of a child's mentality evoked my childhood recollections while her realistic tale of childhood bliss in the midst of poverty caused great empathy on my part making this my preferred work we studied.
Sandra's tale brought back much nostalgia for my younger days. Those days when everything was much more simple and happiness came with almost no effort. Cisneros reminds the reader of infantile glee by repeating words, just like a kid would do. She writes, "please, please, please," and "and there! And there!, And there!…" making almost an alliteration of words that realistically depicts the speech of a child ...
In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we see the effect that society has on the expectations of women. A woman, like the girl described in ‘Barbie Doll’, should be perfect. She should know how to cook and clean, but most importantly be attractive according to the impossible stereotypes of womanly beauty. Many women in today’s society are compared to the unrealistic life and form of the doll. The doll, throughout many years, has transformed itself from a popular toy to a role model for actual women. The extremes to which women take this role model are implicated in this short, yet truthful poem.
For example, when esperanza wants to describe what it’s like having to tote around her annoying sister, she sums up her loneliness by saying "Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor". By using such fluid and poetic writing, Sandra gives us a great mental image of how Esperanza is feeling. This helps us understand Esperanza more as a character and it once again sums up Esperanza’s feelings of loneliness. Sandra Cisneros writes in a very short and choppy way that makes reading her book very easy but still contains the same power in her sentences. For example, “There was a family. All were little. Their arms were little, and their hands were little, and their height was not tall, and their feet very small.” This quote is short and choppy, but still gets the point across. It helps us to understand what this family looks like and makes the sentences easy to read and understand. Also, Sandra’s writing style as in writing vignettes makes the book more powerful. The reader only knows certain points throughout the character life, and mostly those that change the character or effect them in some way. This makes it easier to see how the character changes throughout the book and which things affect the character the most. Esperanza's mom tells her to not "lay her [her neck] on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" of marriage. This is a sample of a vignette and poses as a good example of a powerful sentence the author uses to give you a good mental
The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the influence that a child is placed into during early childhood. Girls are expected to play with "dolls" and "stoves and irons," the usual toys that relate to the old-fashioned duties of women. A young girl begins to learn what she should be for society and not to deviate from the norm. The tone used in this stanza is quite silent and simplistic at first,...
The Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
In the story, “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisneros, two girls compare and talk about their barbies, paying close attention to the materialist details. The girls only have one Barbie and one outfit each. They struggle with their financial situation and pretend to have other barbies that are invisible, until a warehouse burns down and they are able to buy a few imperfect barbies. The central idea of this story is how easy it is to conform to social pressure in society of by pretending that life is perfect, hiding emotions, and hiding one's true self .
Whether a warning to or a reflection on society, the book stimulates thought and forces the reader to look inward at his or her own...
Peter Pan never wanted to grow up, for he always wanted to be a boy and have fun. On the other hand, the general argument made by author, Anne Sexton, in her poem, “The Fury of Overshoes,” is that childhood is most appreciated when a person must be independent. A university student finds that he can relate to the speaker. The high school student, still a child himself, will feel the same as the speaker in her youth. A college student and a high school student reading this poem would conclude this poem with different feelings.
Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written in 1984, and Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, published in 1925, are both aimed at adolescent and adult audiences that deal with deep disturbing themes about serious social conditions and their effects on children as adults. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls living in destitute neighborhoods; and both young girls witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless. Although the narrators face these overwhelming obstacles, they manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength remaining intact.
In “Barbie-Q,” Sandra Cisneros chooses a particular point of view in order to communicate the central points of this story. The story is narrated by one of the two young girls who are the main characters. The story begins with the following: “Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail.” “Mine is the one with bubble hair.” (Cisneros 576) This clearly shows that the narrator is indeed one of the girls. Another part of the story reads, “Every time the same story. Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and your Barbie steals him,” (576) This again shows that the narrator is one of the young girls because she uses words like mine and yours. There are also many other instances throughout the story that prove she is the narrator.
Chin, Elizabeth. Feminist Theory and the Ethnography of Children’s Worlds: Barbie in New Haven, Connecticut.
Life is not a singular momentous journey; it is a multitude of experiences and events that shape not only one’s life, but one’s character. In Vida, Patricia Engel manages to construct a multilayered novel that produces a synergistic effect—the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. By constructing Vida in non-chronological order, Engel manages to convey a realistic account of finding one’s self by reminiscing upon distinct life-changing moments and the subsequent realization of the individual self. Although the chapters seemingly have nothing in common, in the sum of their parts they form a complete portrayal of Sabina. In fact, as Engel asserts, it is not the momentous occasions in life that are the most profound to one’s personal development—the most consequential moments are “uneventful, the way most life-changing moments are. You don’t see them happening” (44). Ultimately, by employing a non-chronological narrative—along with other literary elements—Engel skillfully conveys the personal history of Sabina, while fragmenting time and place. Thus, each chapter is a representation of the person who Sabina was at that time—her feelings, her language, her tone—and that is constantly changing as a girl is growing into a women, and attempting to figure out who she is as an individual.
Laura, our fragile daughter-figure, finds herself escaping life at every turn. She induces sickness in her typing class and even as the Gentleman Caller awaits her in the livingroom. Unable to deal with those difficulties, Laura goes to the zoo and walks aimlessly around the city to waste time. Frightened of interacting with people, she looks to her collection of glass animals as a place of secure acceptance. Laura clings to the fear that she is strange and crippled though she herself exacerbates the reality of that. Magnifying ...
The characters in this book are very round. They each have their own story and have their own problems in life. Let’s start ...
Heppermann, C. M. (2010). The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us. Horn Book Magazine, 86(6), 119-120. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
The writing of a memoir through the eyes of a child can produce a highly entertaining work, as proved by Wole Soyinka. Through the use of third person and the masterful use of the innocence and language of childhood, Soyinka has written a memoir that can make us remember what is was like to see the world through the eyes of a child.