Assignment Paper

Working with Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” and Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll,” find a thread that ties the poems together. Use two scholarly sources (from the school’s databases) to provide evidence for your argument. You must have an argument you can debate.

readings link
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48985/phenomenal-woman
Marge Piercy – “Barbie Doll”
“Barbie Doll”

https://www.poemhunter.com/marge-piercy/poems/
if link doesn’t work this is the poem

This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.

Note: You can create a research log if you wish, but it will not be graded.
Other requirements:

Five full pages, plus a Works Cited page
12-point font, preferably Times New Roman or Garamond
Double space, indent first line of every paragraph
Use one-inch margins (not more than one inch)
Do not use “I,” “my,” “you,” or “your”—they make the tone of your essay too casual
Introduce every quote
Cite every quote
Give your essay a compelling title
Develop a thesis statement, use it somewhere in your opening paragraph and use it to structure your essay