Character and Conflict Sample Paper - Barbie Q With Outside Source

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ENGL 1302
25 Mar. 2020
NOTE: The thesis statement of this paper is underlined. The highlighted passages are the parts
of the paper that link each element of fiction to the thesis.
Personal Best
Poverty is subtle and sharp in Sandra Cisneros’ “Barbie Q.” The memory of not having a
lot shapes the little girls’ luck in getting all the Barbies they could wish for, and it taints the
recollection of the extraordinary event that renders those same Barbies substandard. The strong
memory of the narrator, one of a pair of playmates who are clearly in meager circumstances,
conjures an exciting moment in a child’s life, a toy warehouse fire that delivers an
embarrassment of affordable, but second-rate, riches. The little girls are flat as individuals, but
dynamic in the recognition of what’s acceptable, while their spats with each other stand in for
solidarity and show the veiled conflict of being poor in a society that values plenty only if it is
also perfect.
The narrator, playing Barbies with her sister, cousin, or playmate—one has to guess at
the relationship between the two girls—has no name and no physical characteristics that one can
use to “see” her. Classic Barbies are present in every detail of their appearance (1), though, and
they are sophisticated even in the particulars of their “Red Flair” (Cisneros 1) and “solo in the
Spotlight” (1) outfits. We know the girls by the bond they have in their dolls, which act out the
familiar “he’s mine” (1) conflict. They create the kind of play society where it is acknowledged
that scarcity is a fact of life since “[they] don’t have money for a stupid-looking boy doll when
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we’d both rather ask for a new Barbie outfit next Christmas” (1), and that appearances, supported
by evocative toy marketing language, are an important calculation. An article about “Barbie-Q,”
“The Burnt Doll” asserts the character narrator shows defiance and expresses a strong spirit, and
this elicits the audience's sympathy” (Viesland 270), for it’s clear the narrator and her playmate
are poor. The Barbies start out with few worldly goods, like their owners. When the opportunity
comes to own so many dolls, clothes, and accessories, the narrator doesn’t reveal immediately
that the goods are damaged and waits until the very end to disclose that the smoke smell can’t be
washed out and that Francie’s deformity should be concealed by the dazzle of her prom outfit,
the kind of ensemble that girls in their position can only dream of. The perfection that Barbie
represents can’t quite be squared with the defects in the dolls from the sale; this is the powerful,
sassy memory that the narrator relates as a grownup.
The little girls play fight, and they make their dolls fight in a mock person-to-person
conflict. They agree on not needing Ken—wanting him will only delay the pleasure of more
fashion sooner. They come together in their joy at finding the haul of damaged Barbies and the
Barbie doll family, clothes, and accessories, a find so amazing that parents, when begged in the
relentless mode of children, are willing to buy many more toys on the spot, no need to wait for
Christmas. Then, the playmates do the opposite of fighting, “inside . . . doing loopity-loops and
pirouetting” (1). Their fights are forgotten in the shared excitement of believing they have it all.
Societal conflict plays a part with the revelation that the dolls are smoke damaged and
even deformed by melting. There’s a sense that some effort must be made to wash away the
problems, the smoke smell, and that Francie’s foot should be hidden; after all, “who’s to know?”
(1). The “who” in the last line is everyone in society who might care that the very best that their
world can offer is actually substandard. Even though the narrator seems nonchalant, an
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uncomfortable realization follows her joy at getting almost everything a girl could want, that
what she’s gotten can never be good enough. The sense of the dolls’ unclean characteristics—
they smell even after “you wash and wash and wash them” (1)—speaks to the deep prejudices
that people hold for each other, the insecurities that we have about ourselves, and the
understanding the narrator comes to have about her standing in society, that she should hide her
association with things that are imperfect and substandard.
The narrator’s world of coveted things that are almost good enough is neatly folded into
an astonishing childhood episode where it seems for a moment that she has it all, including
Francie, the most desirable of the many dolls, with every last “Prom Pinks” detail from “eyelash
comb” to “gold clutch” to satisfy a girl’s fondest dream, at least on the outside (1). The
imperfect inside is what must be covered up, with attitude if nothing else. “Barbie Q” leaves the
reader with the unsettling feeling that appearances, as shallow a need as they may be, are the
substance that we hope we merit.
Works Cited
Cisneros, Sandra. “Barbie Q.” English Composition II. Austin Community College. 1-2.
Accessed on 26 Mar. 2020.
Veisland, Jorgen. "The Burnt Doll: The Dialectical Image and Gender Fluidity in Sandra
Cisneros' Short Story 'Barbie-Q'." Forum for World Literature Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, June
2018, pp. 270+. Gale In Context: College, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A555076527/CSIC?
u=txshracd2487&sid=ebsco&xid=f24b94cc. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

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of the paper that link each element of fiction to the thesis.

sassy memory that the narrator relates as a grownup.

association with things that are imperfect and substandard.

substance that we hope we merit.

Accessed on 26 Mar. 2020.

2018, pp. 270+. Gale In Context: College, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A555076527/CSIC?

u=txshracd2487&sid=ebsco&xid=f24b94cc. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

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