Sarah Kells Reflective Essay Feb 19

Barbie is a Product of Her Environment by Jan Edwards

I picked this essay to read because the title reminded me of the poem we read at the beginning of the year called "Barbie Doll."  The essay was very similar to this poem in a lot of ways, as they both are about the negative conotations of having to be the perfect person, but while "Barbie Doll" ends with death, this essay ends with the pattern established throughout merely continuing.
This essay was about Barbie and her life - a life of doing absolutely nothing with any purpose, hooking up with guys and drinking.  The point was to show that the idea of the Barbie doll, which morphs into the idea of the "ideal girl," is not really as great as it seems at first.
The tone in this essay is very sarcastic.  At first it seems to be just explaining what is happening in this girl's life, but it clearly is negative.  Some of the diction used implies that the author is ridiculing Barbie's way of thinking - "she is a good California girl," and the many swear words used throughout are just a couple of examples of this.
Edwards does not use very much imagery in this essay.  She doesn't go into very much detail, but she certainly does not shy away from saying exactly what she means.  A lot of the thoughts, however, are implied.  From the previously quoted statement, "she is a good California girl," the reader can imply that Barbie thinks that she is better than her little sister who is perhaps not such a "good California girl."
The tone used in this essay would not work for an AP essay.  The diction is not very advanced, and it is seperated into small sections which are each about three sentences long.  The sarcastic tone and the occasionally crude language would not go over well in an AP essay, either.