What's That Smell In The Kitchen Analysis

Words: 779
Pages: 4

Once, there was a woman. She worked hard in her life and she could cook. She met a man that she thought would be her whole life, but how wrong was she. The woman fell for his deceiving attitude and charmed grace. She cooked him food that would please the gods, however, she received no gratitude in return. Until finally, she snapped. In Marge Piercy’s poem, “What’s that Smell in the Kitchen,” Piercy expresses her perspective of women in the kitchen in her poem using connotations and shifts. Marge Piercy lived in a dark time where women were not treated fairly, thus leading to share her thoughts in the depths of her poems. “What’s that Smell in the Kitchen” explains how women are burning dinners because of the way their husbands treat them …show more content…
For instance, Piercy starts the poem with the different types of food that “[all] over America women are burning…” which immediately turns to “anger sputters in her brainpan, confined but spewing out missiles of hot fat.” This indicates how over time, women get tired and angry about having to do the same routine over and over again, therefore, the anger boiling inside her will affect the way she acts. This shift reveals the emotions women are feeling towards their husbands, and how it enrages them that they will never be able to achieve more in their roles. In addition, near the end of the poem includes how “[carbonized] despair presses like a clinker/from a barbecue against the back of her eyes.” moves to “Her life is cooked and digested. It describes the exact anger bubbling inside, absorbing the fact that women were being used by their own husbands since cooking is all that they are for. Furthermore, women knew they were taken for granted by their expected roles in society, and upset they feel knowing they were not able to give more than what they are supposed to. Consequently, the act of using shifts in the poem lead to certain turn of events that vindicates the feeling of oppression women are