Journal on "Barbie Doll"

Two lines that really helped me understand the meaning of the poem would have to be when Marge Piercy wrote, “Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said. / Consummation at last.” Basically, these lines are showing how once this girl cut off her nose and legs, she was given a new, beautiful nose and her missing legs were covered when she was placed in her casket; And by consummation, it is not meaning the term of the word that means finally sealing love with sexual intercourse, but the point at which something is complete or finalized. By just this use of the word, it can mean a lot. I take it as how these people at her wake are looking at her and finally believing that she IS pretty, so all of their tormenting did good things for her. And this is the problem with society. Children will make fun of their classmates and peers for not being perfect. Almost everyone goes through this, I know I did when I was younger. I can connect this to my life because I still remember being in fifth grade and this kid named Jack would always make fun of me because I had big legs, and everyone else had little skinny legs. I was a young, fit athlete, and having big legs was just in my genetic makeup. This is what people don’t understand! So this line really hit home because with this girl’s new nose and legs, she was finally complete. Even though, all of these people shouldn’t have been worrying about what her body looked like in the first place. A girl is more than just her body. Also, it truly disgusts me that everyone would even be okay with her having this putty nose that looked completely different from her normal nose that she had previously. A wake is meant for people to remember the passed as who they were, not what they wanted them to be. I can connect this to my life because when my Uncle Pete died, he was wearing a brand new red Polo hat in his casket, and everyone freaked out because he is known for wearing his beat up, light blue Polo hat. So, his mother went home and got the blue hat for him to be laid to rest with. In this poem, it really shows me that all of these people that tormented her didn’t care at all abut her past and who she really was. All they cared about was her appearance, which is the meaning of this poem. These two lines really define the tone as well, because this is a disturbing message, and it is disturbing that these people would think that she is prettier dead with this better nose, than alive with her big nose.