Poem 4: The Woman in the Ordinary by Marge Piercy

THE WOMAN IN THE ORDINARY

The woman in the ordinary pudgy downcast girl
is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched.
Round and pebble smooth she effaces herself
under ripples of conversation and debate.
The woman in the block of ivory soap
has massive thighs that neigh,
great breasts that blare and strong arms that trumpet.
The woman of the golden fleece
laughs uproariously from the belly
inside the girl who imitates
a Christmas card virgin with glued hands,
who fishes for herself in other's eyes,
who stoops and creeps to make herself smaller.
In her bottled up is a woman peppery as curry,
a yam of a woman of butter and brass,
compounded of acid and sweet like a pineapple,
like a handgrenade set to explode,
like goldenrod ready to bloom. 

Analysis

       The first stanza starts off with "the woman in the ordinary pudgy downcast girl", which in actuality, is not ordinary at all. A woman shouldn't be pudgy or downcast, because this is a depressing thought. She continues to drown herself in "ripples of conversation and debate", which serve as distractions for her. She is clearly very unhappy as an "ordinary woman", which at the time was the generic 'housewife' of the 50's. 

       The next section proceeds to contain evidence of more suppression, where she describes herself as having "massive thighs" and "strong arms that trumpet". Despite her ordinarily figured self, she remains strong. 

       She is a "girl who imitates a Christmas card virgin with glued hands", indicating that she has a sense of humor; that she is not just this 'ordinary woman' she was set out to be. She doesn't quite know herself yet, as she "fishes for herself in other's eyes". This line makes me think that she is about college age when she wrote this. I think she was just about to come out of her shell that she was built in for such a long time, that when she wrote this, she was just beginning to realize how much better life can be than being an 'ordinary woman'. 

       In the last stanza, she writes that "in her bottled up is a woman peppery as curry", meaning that she is much more than just a woman. She has spice and flavor to her. She is a "handgrenade set to explode", which implies that she was been severely suppressed by society and her family.