The Radical Expectations to be Perfect in “Barbie Doll” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

[W2] In the texts read this year, expectations clearly hinder the development of the individual. The radical expectations to be a perfect girl in the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and the expectations to maintain a perfect society in the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin hinders the development of the individual because the universal pursuit of perfection does not allow the individual to be happy just the way he or she is.

            “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is loaded with expectations for a young, innocent girl to be accepted as beautiful. Although she does [W3] everything else accordingly, the simple fact that she is not beautiful hinders her acceptance of herself. “She went to and fro apologizing./Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (Piercy 10-11). No matter what she did, the common perception to who she is as an individual is the fact she has a fat nose on thick legs-the fact that she is not beautiful. Throughout the poem, Piercy describes this “girlchild”[W4]  as a girl who tries to be accepted by being “…healthy, tested intelligent/possessed strong arms and back/abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Piercy 7-8)[W5] . Eventually, these expectations catch up to the girl. “Her good nature wore out/like a fan belt/So she cut off her nose and her legs” (Piercy 15-17).[W6]  She deals with the constant put-downs by simply taking off her legs and nose as an attempt to look pretty. Ultimately, she kills herself for that[W7] , and never gets the opportunity to mold her individuality. “Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said./Consummation at last./To every woman a happy ending” (Piercy 23-25). [W8] These last, chilling lines of the poem sum up the desire of this poor girl, who essentially kills herself and cuts off the criticized parts of her body in a vain attempt to look pretty. This radical expectation to be a “Barbie” [W9] clearly hinders her development to be an individual, but in “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas”, the expectations to maintain a perfect, “Barbie Doll”-esque society was what hindered the citizens to mold a personality.

            In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, Ursula K. Le Guin uses a small child to depict the fate of the cite of Omelas. [W10] The child is extremely malnourished, and barely lives each day, but there is nothing the people of Omelas can do. “No matter how well the matter has been explained to them, these young spectators are always shocked and sickened at the sight. They feel disgust, which they had thought themselves superior to. They feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all the explanations, they would like to do something for the child. But there is nothing they can do” (LeGuin 325).  These expectations to simply accept the dark reality of the child disallows for the citizens of Omelas to be individuals in their respective ways, and to be happy knowing everyone else is content in their own ways. It is the universal pursuit of perfection that the citizens of Omelas have that frightens them to not let the child be happy. “They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, [W11] others are content merely to know it is there” (Le Guin 325). Clearly, the people of Omelas comply with these expectations, and are content with it. They somehow, someway believe that if the child is treated properly, “…all the prosperity and beauty of delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed”[W12]  (Le Guin 325). Instead of helping the child, the people of Omelas opt to maintain perfection and do nothing. Eventually, they leave Omelas instead of taking a risk against perfection to help the child, resulting in a lack of a personality and opinion, which plays along with a lack of solid individuality. “The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness” (Le Guin 326).

            Expectations to be perfect are what hinder the development of an individual, and that is clearly shown in the readings “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Barbie Doll”. The issue to be perfect not only hinders the development in these texts, but it also hinders the development of people today, in real life. If you aren’t perfect, you will be criticized, and that radical expectation is what hinders[W13]  so many people today from having their own, unique personality and be happy with it.

---

 [W1]That’s not even the name of the story

 [W2]This is analytical. Not chat

 [W3]Make present tense throughout whole essay. There’s a lot of past tense verbs

 [W4]Just use girl. Piercy never refers to her as the “girlchild”

 [W5]Incorrect citing. Since you start in the middle of the line, you have to put … to denote that there are words before the part that you cite. Also, its more than three lines so you have to take it out as a separate paragraph. You also cited the lines wrong. Its (Piercy 7-9)

 [W6]Same problems. Need to add that … in. Also is three lines so need to take it out again

 [W7]For what?

 [W8]3 lines, take it out as separate paragraph

 [W9]“ Barbie Doll” capitalize thie d

 [W10]In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”,  LeGuin uses a child to ultimately depict the fate of the city of Omelas.

Some weird syntax here, also Omelas is a city not  a state.

 [W11]What?

 [W12]Add the … at the beginning. Im 100% sure that the sentence doesn’t start like that. OH 100%? ALRIGHT.

 [W13]hinders