The Social Curse

The Social Curse

“Hanging Fire” written by Andre Lorde and “Barbie Doll” written by Marge Piercy are both powerful and enlightening poems about what young girls experience emotionally while growing up. Lorde’s poem speaks clearly about the insecurities a young girl is having while feeling no support from her family. Piercy’s poem, though a bit shorter in length, dives into a deeper, more serious stage of a young girl’s life and how she struggles to accept criticisms about her body. Lorde’s poem ends with very little resolution to the issues at hand, yet Piercy’s poem ends with the young girl replacing her surgically fixing her insecurities, then later dying. The two poems themes relating to the social strains put on young girls can be compared by their subjects, their tone and their resolutions to the problems at hand.

“Hanging Fire” focuses on a young girl’s insecurities with life in general, while “Barbie Doll" has a specific focus on the insecurities of physical appearance. The first four lines in Lorde’s poem are “I am fourteen and my skin has betrayed me the boy I cannot live without still sucks his thumb in secret.” These four lines set the scene for the entire poem. The first line explaining the age of the author, the second line giving an insecurity about her skin, the third line depicting the ever-so-changing thought process of a young girl, feeling like she cannot live without this one boy who as well has faults, such as sucking this thumb, and the fourth line simply stating “in secret” is actually explaining that so much in life for young people is a secret. These two words set the tone for the entire poem. At the end of the first stanza, “and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed,” is showing how this young, confused girl feels alone while dealing with her insecurities. Piercy’s poem however, begins explaining the young girl in the poems lifestyle by stating, “the girlchild was born as usual.” The author states this at the beginning to show...