Marge Piercy uses a variety of literary devices to express the young girl’s struggle to fit in, in her poem “Barbie Doll”. The poem’s title is an example of symbolism because the word “Barbie doll” is often referred to by some as an ideal woman. This symbolizes what society expects of the young girl in the poem. When the girl is merely a child, Piercy uses imagery to describe the young girl’s childhood and her life beyond that. As the girl in the poem got older, her classmates began to bully her because she wasn’t good enough. The girl was repeatedly put down and made fun of for being different. After a while “her good nature wore out like a fan belt” while trying to fit into her classmate’s standards(15-16). This is an example of Piercy using…show more content… An extended metaphor is simply a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. Piercy does this to more thoroughly explain what society wants a young woman to look like by comparing it to something many are familiar with. A Barbie doll is a universal symbol in which everyone associates beauty with it. The extended metaphor ends with “consummation at last/ to every woman a happy ending”(24-25). This is used to show that the girl’s peers are finally happy with her appearance even though the girl has died. Thus leading to the final literary device Piercy used which are…show more content… Throughout her life, Piercy was heavily involved in feminism movements, so it would make sense for her to write about society's negative impacts on body image for young girls. Also it is fairly obvious that Piercy herself went through some sort of bullying or self esteem issues in her life because there are very strong emotions in this poem. Piercy creates tension through the use of powerful words and phrases that include a very strong negative connotation, therefore successfully conveying the dark and upsetting mood. Piercy uses these words to help create the image of society’s unrealistic expectations and shares her ideas with the reader. Piercy also pauses at seemingly important parts to emphasize them. This helps get her ideas and theme across without it being too obvious as to what she wants the reader to infer on his or her own. Marge Piercy uses a variety of literary devices to help convey her thoughts, feelings, and emotions in her poem “Barbie
