Isn't it ironic...

Marge Piercy uses a great deal of irony in her poem "Barbie Doll" to convey her message. What do you think when you hear Barbie doll? Blonde? Skinny? Pretty, popular? Well to be honest, so do I! For most young girls, a certain image is engraved into their brains from the time they pick up their first doll. They think in order to be cool and popular like Barbie, they need to be perfect with beautiful features and exact proportions. In the poem "Barbie Doll", Marge Piercy plays with image as well as irony to show how this corrupt image has resulted in unfortunate events amongst the young women in our society.

"Then in the magic of puberty". When was the last time you heard somebody refer to puberty as magic? This is one example where Piercy uses verbal irony. Yes magic usually has a positive connotation, but here magic is far from what actually happens. In fact, in this situation, irony takes over and the girls "big nose and fat legs" are revealed to the reader, later taking a negative toll on her  actions. 

"Doesn't she look pretty?" Are you kidding me! Here, the girl is no where near pretty! She is dead! This is a key example of verbal irony that Piercy uses in her poem. According to the community, the girl is now "pretty" because she transformed herself into the ideal, cookie-cutter shape of a Barbie doll, cutting of both her legs and her nose. 

"To every woman a happy ending." Is this really a happy ending? All your left with now is a dead girl and an even more distorted community. This is pretty ironic, being that absolutely nothing good came out of this ending.

The use of irony by Marge Piercy was extremely useful in conveying her main idea. All of these examples of verbal irony show how the image of a plastic doll has impacted the lives of young girls, causing them to make life threatening decisions in order to be "perfect"...