Marks Essay, Research Paper
MARKS
My husband gives me an ?A?
for last nights supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait ?til they learn
I?m dropping out.
–By Linda Pastan.
Marks by Linda Pastan develops an idea of being in school. It also deals with the frustrations of life. The woman is telling the story from her point of view, how she sees what is going on.
After reading the title of this poem, I wondered what the poem is about. Is it about someone in school? Or someone and left with been hit who has marks, or could it be someone seeing marks on something trying to figure out what the marks may be. I didn?t know what to expect in the poem, but I had a feeling it was something negative, that it wasn?t going to be a happy poem.
The poem is about how the wife/mother is dealing with life. She is frustrated that everyone in her family continuously judges her. They are grading everything she says and does. She feels she no longer wants to be a part of life anymore as she says she is ?dropping out? in the end of the poem. Her husband doesn?t think she is the best, her son only believes she is average, and her daughter just passes her.
The poem is a controlling metaphor. The poem is referring to her life as if she was in school taking a test. The test is her life, and she is being heavily graded upon what she does and says by all her teachers and peers.
In line 1 she says ?My husband gives me an A for last nights supper?. This is a good critique, but the only good part in this short poem. The rest of her grades are O.K., or not great, which makes her feel frustrated that everyone is grading her and judging her. She gets to the point where she is going to drop out of the test of life.
This poem reminded me of how I felt not too long ago when I was being judged on everything I did. I hated it as did Pastan, and I was ready to drop out also. I sympathized with her one hundred percent because no one should have to be judged on all the idiosyncrasies of life.
I enjoyed this poem because it gave me a sense of what the author was feeling. She felt as though she was being judged and could no longer take it anymore. She couldn?t stand the pressure that was being put on her to be an ?A? student in her class of Wife and Motherhood.