Barbie-Q Essay Example
Barbie-Q Essay Example

Barbie-Q Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (591 words)
  • Published: September 11, 2017
  • Type: Analysis
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In Sandra Cisneros’s “Barbie-Q” . a sudden copiousness of flawed Barbie dolls makes the child storyteller accepts her ain individuality and discards society’s ideals of adult females. The initial storyworld is that of philistinism and flawlessness. What the storyteller values in her dolls and what she plays with them could be seen as a contemplation of her ain ego image. of what she thinks she should look like and what sort of life she should populate. From the first few lines of the narrative it becomes clear that the storyteller of the narrative is a small miss.

She describes the outfits of her barbies. as if reading from the bundle. to her friend. “Yours is the 1 with average eyes and a ponytail. Striped swimwear. stilettos. dark glassess. and gilded hoop earrings. ” The doll’s average eyes re

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veals the author’s critical attitude towards the ideal it represents. This attitude besides shows in the rubric of the narrative. The Narrator uses 2nd individual. as if straight adressing the reader. Who she is speaking to is ne'er defined in the narrative. but it is clear that she is speaking to a fellow kid.

The narrative chiefly uses merely first and 2nd individual. which realistically recreates the universe of a small miss. where the storyteller and her friend are the lone people and Barbie dolls the lone things that affair. In the 2nd paragraph. the misss repeat society’s gender functions in their drama: “Every clip the same narrative. Your Barbie is roomies with my Barbie. my Barbie’s fellow comes over and your Barbie steals him. O.K. ? ” The unseeable Ken doll could be seen as the author’s manner o

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underscoring her point about society’s assuptions of immature women’s involvements. The writer makes the scene unusual plenty to catch the reader’s attending.

The flea market scene describes the mundane world of the narrator’s vicinity which is contrasted with the girl’s aspirations that are projected to barbie dolls that represent a different societal background and life style. The storyteller lists the points in the flea markets merely like she did with her dolls: “Lying on the street following to some tool spots. and platform places with the heels all squashed. and a fluorescent green wicker wastepaper basket. and aluminum foil. and hubcaps. and a pink shag carpet. and windshield wiper blades. and dust-covered Mason jars. and java can full of rusty nails. This emphasises the contrast.

The initial narrative universe is disrupted in the flea market scene as the storyteller finds blemished Barbies for sale. This scene develops in the following paragraph as the storyteller gets all the Barbies she dreamed of. merely all of them damaged by a fire. In the last paragraph. the storyteller seems to accept her ain societal background as she understands that it doesn’t affair that they can’t afford all the new Barbie dolls.

So what if we didn’t acquire our new Bendable Legs Barbie and Midge and Ken and Skipper and Tutti and Todd and Scooter and Rickie and Alan and Francie in nice clean boxes and had to purchase them on Maxwell Street. all water-soaked and sooty. ” The storyteller describes her blemished Barbie: “And if the prettiest doll. Barbie’s MOD’ern cousin Francie with existent ciliums. cilium coppice included. has a left pes that’s melted a little-so? ” This statement could be

seen as holding a wider significance. that the kid besides accepts her ain defects and ends her pursuit for flawlessness defined by society.

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