"BARBIE-Q" SENTENCE ANALYSIS
“So what if we didn’t get our new Bendable Legs Barbie and midge and Ken and Skipper and Tutti and Todd and Scooter and Ricky and Alan and Francie in nice clean boxes and had to buy them on Maxwell Street, all water-soaked and sooty … If you dress her in her new “Prom Pinks” outfit, satin splendor with matching coat, gold belt, clutch, and hair bow included, so long as you don’t lift her dress, right?-- who’s to know.”
Stylistically, these sentences (and the story as a whole) are written in short, choppy sentences that are not fully grammatically correct. These sentences reminded me of the writing style used in “The Semplica-Girl Diaries” but also of that in “My Parents’ Bedroom”. In “The Semplica-Girl Diaries” the sentences are choppy (though they’re not as choppy as those in“Barbie-Q”) and the narrator of “My Parents’ Bedroom” is also a child. The narrator uses metaphors, like “...inside we are doing loopity-loops and pirouetting” and child-like language like “You dumbbell! … Oh no he’s not, you stinky!”. I’ve noticed that young narrators often use metaphors, perhaps because that’s how they are able to explain the world and what they think. The child narrator of “My Parents’ Bedroom” also used metaphors. It is clear that the main characters of this story are part of a low social class, and this is shown through the description of their Barbie dolls. The narrator brings up several times that she only has one outfit for her Barbie doll, “not including the sock dress” she made “from an old sock when we cut holes here and here and here”. She doesn’t even try to cover it up and make herself seem richer than she actually is, but this makes sense because as a child, she’d be stating things literally, as they are. At the beginning of the story, she says “that’s all we can afford” when describing the outfits the dolls are wearing. The characters go to a flea market on Sunday, and this setting shows that they must be of a low social class, as flea markets are known for having cheap, affordable items (in addition, “there is a big fire sale at Maxwell Street, today only”). The children want the dolls there even though they’re all very damaged from the fire. They are grateful that they at least get Barbie dolls and don’t care that they’re of poor physical condition. Barbie dolls are seen as the ideal of feminine beauty. However, we see that the girls, at the end of the day, do not seem to care whether their dolls are flawless or not. The author makes sure to place an emphasis on the physical descriptions of the dolls, perhaps to emphasize this point. Even though the dolls barely have any outfits and are damaged, the girls still accept them. They only want to play with their Barbie dolls for fun; they don’t see them as damaging to their perceptions of themselves.
Stylistically, these sentences (and the story as a whole) are written in short, choppy sentences that are not fully grammatically correct. These sentences reminded me of the writing style used in “The Semplica-Girl Diaries” but also of that in “My Parents’ Bedroom”. In “The Semplica-Girl Diaries” the sentences are choppy (though they’re not as choppy as those in“Barbie-Q”) and the narrator of “My Parents’ Bedroom” is also a child. The narrator uses metaphors, like “...inside we are doing loopity-loops and pirouetting” and child-like language like “You dumbbell! … Oh no he’s not, you stinky!”. I’ve noticed that young narrators often use metaphors, perhaps because that’s how they are able to explain the world and what they think. The child narrator of “My Parents’ Bedroom” also used metaphors. It is clear that the main characters of this story are part of a low social class, and this is shown through the description of their Barbie dolls. The narrator brings up several times that she only has one outfit for her Barbie doll, “not including the sock dress” she made “from an old sock when we cut holes here and here and here”. She doesn’t even try to cover it up and make herself seem richer than she actually is, but this makes sense because as a child, she’d be stating things literally, as they are. At the beginning of the story, she says “that’s all we can afford” when describing the outfits the dolls are wearing. The characters go to a flea market on Sunday, and this setting shows that they must be of a low social class, as flea markets are known for having cheap, affordable items (in addition, “there is a big fire sale at Maxwell Street, today only”). The children want the dolls there even though they’re all very damaged from the fire. They are grateful that they at least get Barbie dolls and don’t care that they’re of poor physical condition. Barbie dolls are seen as the ideal of feminine beauty. However, we see that the girls, at the end of the day, do not seem to care whether their dolls are flawless or not. The author makes sure to place an emphasis on the physical descriptions of the dolls, perhaps to emphasize this point. Even though the dolls barely have any outfits and are damaged, the girls still accept them. They only want to play with their Barbie dolls for fun; they don’t see them as damaging to their perceptions of themselves.
Good choice of story for this blog post! I find the narrator's voice in "Barbie-Q" really endearing. Others in the class have also compared the narrative style to "The Semplica-Girl Diaries," which is interesting--both do have a very casual, spoken quality. I'd describe the sentences quoted at the top of the post as actually being fairly long, rather than short and choppy, though; there's a kind of breathless excitement in the narrator's listing ("our new Bendable Legs Barbie and midge and Ken and Skipper and Tutti and Todd and Scooter and Ricky and Alan and Francie").
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the final line--"who's to know." As you point out in your post, "the girls, at the end of the day, do not seem to care whether their dolls are flawless or not." -Ms. O'Brien