Collar and Barbie Doll Observed

¶ … Collar and Barbie Doll observed that both George Herbert's poem "The Collar" and Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll" essentially offer critiques regarding certain valued social ideals of modern Western society. Herbert's poem critiques certain aspects of Christianity, the West's predominant religion, and Piercy's poem criticizes Western society's views and expectations regarding its women.

I thought that Herbert's poem was about one individual's struggle towards fulfilling the many duties and expectations required of him as a devout Christian. I felt that the speaker kept voicing his frustration towards fulfilling these seemingly endless demands. This is apparent from the poem's first line when he decries, "I struck the board, and cry'd, No more." It seemed as though he considered himself to be like a slave whose hard work is never acknowledged by his master.

Likewise I thought that Piercy's poem was about one individual's struggle towards living up to society's high ideals, as embodied by Barbie, regarding womanhood. I liked that Piercy symbolically described how young girls are conditioned early on to embody society's ideals by being "presented dolls that did pee-pee" as well as "wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy." The poem used heart wrenching language to describe one young girl's constant attempts at and eventual frustration towards living up to society's ideals. This can be seen when after being "advised to play coy... exercise, diet, smile and wheedle" the girl's "good nature wore out like a fan belt."