“What’s That Smell in the Kitchen?”
Reader –Response Criticism
“What’s That Smell in the Kitchen?”
Marge Piercy’s poem “What’s That Smell in the Kitchen” is about the women’s rights movement of the seventies and the quiet rage an older women might feel towards her husband, her place in life and the movement in general. The poem begins unifying women across
America and ends with a blatant declaration of war, using clever wording relating a woman’s life to the kitchen and the food she prepares. At the beginning of the poem Piercy states “All over America women are burning dinners.” This shows that this is not a solitary fight by a lone woman, but a movement on a large scale. The typical reader may see this as a way of identifying with the message of this poem. One could see the location in which they reside and a meal that is associated with their location and feel a connection to the poem. By listing different places across the country and what they would most likely be cooking there, we also see diversity amongst the women. The next line “All over America women are burning/ food they are supposed to bring with calico/ smile on platters glittering like wax,” expresses a few ideas. The first line brings us back from the diversity of all the different dinners being prepared, unifying the women once again. The break in this line is also very clever. It seems to have a double meaning, the first being that the “women are burning” as if they are angry or fuming, but the line continues the
story as well. This is also where we see the first use of conflicting imagery. Wax does not glitter, so what does she mean? The use of conflicting imagery can be viewed as how the woman in the poem is herself conflicted. She has been raised to believe her position is in the kitchen and subservient to her husband, but at the same time there is a movement telling women they should not be shackled to the stove. In the next line we see this again, “Anger sputters in her
“What’s That Smell in the Kitchen?”
Marge Piercy’s poem “What’s That Smell in the Kitchen” is about the women’s rights movement of the seventies and the quiet rage an older women might feel towards her husband, her place in life and the movement in general. The poem begins unifying women across
America and ends with a blatant declaration of war, using clever wording relating a woman’s life to the kitchen and the food she prepares. At the beginning of the poem Piercy states “All over America women are burning dinners.” This shows that this is not a solitary fight by a lone woman, but a movement on a large scale. The typical reader may see this as a way of identifying with the message of this poem. One could see the location in which they reside and a meal that is associated with their location and feel a connection to the poem. By listing different places across the country and what they would most likely be cooking there, we also see diversity amongst the women. The next line “All over America women are burning/ food they are supposed to bring with calico/ smile on platters glittering like wax,” expresses a few ideas. The first line brings us back from the diversity of all the different dinners being prepared, unifying the women once again. The break in this line is also very clever. It seems to have a double meaning, the first being that the “women are burning” as if they are angry or fuming, but the line continues the
story as well. This is also where we see the first use of conflicting imagery. Wax does not glitter, so what does she mean? The use of conflicting imagery can be viewed as how the woman in the poem is herself conflicted. She has been raised to believe her position is in the kitchen and subservient to her husband, but at the same time there is a movement telling women they should not be shackled to the stove. In the next line we see this again, “Anger sputters in her