Irony

Barbie Dolls, those dolls that as a child all girls looked at as the perfect girl. The most beautiful thing that they imagined they would hopefully become as an adult.

In Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll," irony is used to get across the main idea that people judge too quickly on appearance versus whats inside, reality. When I read "Barbie Doll," I kept thinking about how this girl was a typical girl who was smart, strong, and beautiful, but with a few flaws. These flaws are pointed out, and she forgets the positive things about her.

Irony, referring to how something is not what it seems, has two main types, dramatic irony and verbal irony. Dramatic irony refers to the discrepancy between what the speaker says and what the poem means. Piercy names the story "Barbie Doll," and right away, the reader thinks of a tan, blonde haired girl with beautiful blue eyes. Ironically, Piercy writes that she was however "healthy" and "tested intelligent," not necessarily pretty and beautiful like the barbie dolls depicted in real life. Piercy uses verbal irony when she says that in her casket, with her "turned-up putty nose" and thick legs, she was finally thought of as pretty. Ironically, once she is dead, then she is pretty without the two flaws that were part of who she was...