The secretary chant. Analysis Of The Secretary Chant By Marge Piercy 2022-12-19
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The "Secretary Chant" is a poem written by Marge Piercy in the 1970s, during the height of the women's liberation movement. The poem speaks to the dehumanizing and objectifying treatment of women in the workforce, particularly in secretarial roles.
In the poem, Piercy describes the tedious and monotonous work of a secretary, who is expected to be constantly available and attentive to her boss's needs. She is expected to type, file, answer phones, and perform other tasks without complaint or error. The speaker of the poem is the secretary herself, and she speaks to the constant pressure and expectations placed upon her, saying "I am a servant, a dog on a chain."
The poem also touches on the ways in which women's bodies and appearances are scrutinized and judged in the workplace. The secretary is expected to dress and present herself in a certain way, and any deviation from this norm is met with disdain and criticism. She is expected to be thin, attractive, and well-groomed, and is told that her appearance is important in order to "please the men."
The poem speaks to the larger issue of the objectification and exploitation of women in the workforce, and how this treatment is often normalized and accepted as the status quo. The speaker of the poem resists this treatment, saying "I am not a toy, a tool, a pretty." She asserts her own agency and dignity, despite the constant attempts to diminish and control her.
In conclusion, the "Secretary Chant" is a powerful and poignant commentary on the treatment of women in the workforce, and the ways in which they are objectified and dehumanized. It speaks to the importance of fighting against these systemic injustices, and asserting one's own agency and dignity in the face of constant pressure and expectations.
An Analysis of the Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy: [Essay Example], 756 words GradesFixer
The poem also challenges social norms that apply to women and the beauty ideal. And because of this, the secretary is thought of as being impervious to disarray and chaos. She was the first in her family to attend college, studying at the University of Michigan. This metaphor is crucial to the rest of the poem. An obvious meaning for these phrases is that she is the place where everyone goes to obtain their office supplies. In the opening lines of "Homage to My Hips," Clifton describes how her hips are big and how "they don't fit into little petty places. However, they both find their identities after all.
Her novels and poetry often focus on feminist or social concerns, although her settings vary. The author conjures up an explicit mental image of a woman who has no personal identity but who is living her life indirectly through her career. A possibly fitting example to further substantiate this would be a cramped subway station, where a passenger would try to squeeze into a seat, just so as to have a comfortable ride. It is so vague as to use a simple simile, but a strong manifestation of the idea of the speaker is an actual personification of a material object. Her gifts of mind are implied, however, by the ever-lengthening list of metaphors she invents. It is up to the reader to find the theme. Winning a Hopwood Award for Poetry and Fiction 1957 enabled her to finish college and spend some time in France, and her formal schooling ended with an M.
The tone is set from the first line of the poem. Piercy also uses paradox, personification, and the pun to bring the character alive. The poem honestly causes me a lot of confusion, which is why I picked it. Body of Glass He, She and It 1991 postulates an environmentally ruined world dominated by sprawling mega-cities and a futuristic version of the Internet, through which Piercy weaves elements of Jewish mysticism and the legend of the Golem, although a key story element is the main character's attempts to regain custody of her young son. There are four onomatopoeias in this poem: buzz, click, zing, and tinkle.
Rubber bands form my hair. What do paper clips and rubber bands do? The placements of the words alone create a certain feeling. When you think of a desk, what is it that you think of? Instead of sounding highly attractive, she sounds bizarre, almost monstrous. The second is the date of publication online or last modification online. She did not want her future to be like that and was forced to feel out of place with no where to turn. Clifton and Sexton both have their woman mention what is expected of the typical woman in their societies. She wants everyone to see her not as a mere mechanical contraption that can perform tasks whenever required to do so.
She was not able to have equality in their relationships, sexuality, birth control and abortion Norton, Mary Beth and Alexandra, Ruth M. The next symbol is her great big nose and fat legs. From the first line of the poem, the distinct metaphors make it obvious to the reader that the woman is a piece of witless office apparatus of extreme habit. An Echo Sonnet To An Empty Page Poem Analysis 1417 Words 6 Pages Poetry in literature is often marked significantly by a literary device or a special characteristic of the structure. Get your paper price 124 experts online It is also a common misconception that, should anything be needed, the secretary is always the person to ask.
"The Secretary Chant" by Marge Piercy Essay Example
These reasons may include not having the qualities to be able to handle their dream job or some just work for money, to get them and their family through the day. Piercy starts by personifying a desk as her hips. Her first book of poems, Breaking Camp, was published in 1968. Also, after the war, women were still employed as secretaries, waitresses, or in other clerical jobs. The poem "Hard Work" is characterized with a deep introspection of the protagonist. . The onomatopoeias break up the body of the poem and the effect makes the poem seem even quite gloomy.
This is the burial of her childhood only to keep her memories and carry them with her for the rest of her life. How this reveals the theme is that she cannot talk about her dreams and hopes with others, both because of her lack of freedom to talk to others and also because of her her current experience with gender discrimination as a woman, which causes her to be lonely. Each line is written with a purpose. The last four lines of the poem are particularly intriguing: File me under W because I wonce was a woman. My head is a switchboard where crossed lines crackle.
The speaker feels much trapped in the workplace and has a sense of feeling overwhelmed with her job. As the list of metaphors grows, the comparisons imply that the secretary is almost literally being consumed by her job. Piercy goes on to describe her head in two different ways. Connotations I found were metaphors and onomatopoeia which strongly implied the theme. The ending phrase helps bring the message that workplaces were still dominated by men, and she herself ended up not being seen as a woman. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.
