The Secretary Chant is a poem by Marge Piercy that explores the theme of the objectification and exploitation of women in the workforce. The poem is written from the perspective of a woman who works as a secretary, and it uses a repetitive, chanting style to convey the monotony and repetition of her work.
The poem begins with the speaker declaring that she is "a typewriter, a filing cabinet, a calculator." This language highlights the way in which she is reduced to nothing more than a tool, a means to an end for her male boss. She is not seen as a person with her own thoughts, feelings, or desires, but rather as a machine that exists solely to serve the needs of others.
The speaker goes on to describe the various tasks that she performs as a secretary, such as "typing letters, answering phones, making coffee." These mundane and repetitive tasks further emphasize the way in which the speaker is reduced to a machine, performing the same tasks over and over again without any sense of personal fulfillment or meaning.
The poem also touches on the theme of sexual objectification, as the speaker describes how her boss "pats [her] fanny" and "touches [her] breasts." This behavior is not only degrading and disrespectful, but it also highlights the power dynamic at play in the workplace, with the boss using his position of authority to take advantage of the speaker.
Overall, The Secretary Chant is a powerful and poignant poem that exposes the ways in which women are often objectified and exploited in the workforce. It speaks to the larger societal issues of gender inequality and the ways in which women are often treated as nothing more than objects or tools to be used by men.
Secretary chant analysis Free Essays
Love is gem hidden underneath a world full of coal but once you find it your enlightened…. The poem is, in a sense, a very ironic blazon. Swollen, heavy, rectangular I am about to be delivered of a baby Xerox machine. To avoid premarital sex these are three steps that is followed to lead to success. How this reveals the theme is that she cannot talk about her dreams and hopes with others, both because of her lack of freedom to talk to others and also because of her her current experience with gender discrimination as a woman, which causes her to be lonely. We took a bus, and it took about two hours to get to Sacramento.
The Secretary Chant Summary
Rubber bands form my hair. Of course, for a job to be enjoyable, the people working and the bosses as well should be someone who is respectable to their fellow employee and those under them, respectively. I do not know how to get a full understanding of anything in this poem, especially things such as themes and allusions so I do not really have anything to say about either of those things so I am going to move on. Piercy feels as though women are not seen as equal in the workplace, and she uses metaphors and personification to help bring her points across. The whole mood of the poem is philosophically calm, though somewhat sad and pessimistic. She says that she is delivering a Xerox machine, meaning that her offspring is going to end up doing exactly what she does.
The Secretary Chant: Poem Analysis
She was not able to have equality in their relationships, sexuality, birth control and abortion Norton, Mary Beth and Alexandra, Ruth M. I got the theme of the poem through its connotation like the metaphors and some The Secretary Chant In life there are things that can take over how to live life and how to be as a person. Instead of sounding highly attractive, she sounds bizarre, almost monstrous. Poetry taught me the hardships of writing, writer's block exists, and not every style of writing is enjoyable. The Vedas chant is repetitive in the recitation.
In Marge Piercy's poem "The Secretary Chant," why is "once" spelled as "wonce"?
This is being led to see that she is a robot and was very old. The bars on the windows also symbolize entrapment and imprisonment of the narrator and other women. It is the place where all supplies are laid out, and all work is being done. Women have struggled a lot to find their self-worth and identity in the workplace, women feel as if they have to keep proving themselves Every time to these male - dominated jobs and never getting the credit that they deserve at the end. To a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone. The poem was at 1970s office, which a single woman, became her job. Furthermore, two extraordinary poems share a very powerful theme.
