Good, But Not Good Enough Essay

There are measure when we feel we must be perfect in order to revel others. No matter if we did the best we could do, if it wasnt perfect we felt bid a failure. We want the approval that tots with perfect ness. Every day we visualise a new commercial or magazine showing an throw of a hunky, greased up muscle man or an lean model with tons of make up air brushed on her body and society compares you with that image. We as a people tend to rehearse those false images of hit as a scale to rate the rilievo of the population by and if you do non fit in that family unit you are not beautiful. So we strive to be accepted to be approved by the rest of society.In Janice Mirikitanis metrical composition felo-de-se none a young Asian American college student apologizes to her nourishs for not being perfect. Perfect in school and perfect in life. redden though the girl worked very hard and did very well it wasnt good comme il faut in her object and maybe in her parents mind to be worthy of her parents love or life itself, and so her sole(prenominal) option was death to atone for her sin of imperfectness.The poem beginsHow many notes scripted/ ink smeared like bird prints in s at one time./ not good seemly not pretty enough not smart enough / undecomposed mother and father ./ I apologize/ for disappointing you / Ive worked hard, / not good enough / harder, perhaps to please you.(373.1-9)Clearly the girl in this poem the girl is apologizing for much more thangrades. She has set unrealistic standards for herself and has a lack of self worth all because she cannot achieve these standards. She cannot change the path she looks, yet she is apologizing for not being pretty enough.She also goes on to talk ab show up how life may have been better for her if she were a son instead of a daughter. She would be worthy of love because she associates strength, confidence, beauty and smarts with being male. I would swagger through life / muscled and bold and assured,( 373.17-18).Who do we blame for this young girls negative self-image? Is it societys fault that she values being a male more than her give life or is it her parents fault for not qualification her feel the love that she so desperately needs right now? Obviously she was never appreciated for her work because shes constantly apologizing for not being good enough throughout the whole note and dialog about how failure, disappointment and disapproval drive her closer to committing suicide. Maybe if her parents voiced how they felt about her this tragedy could have been prevented. however into the poem she talks about how she will atone for her sin of imperfectness. My pass I will drop / bone by bone, perched / on the ledge of my womanhood,/ fragile as wings(373-374.31-34). She is toying with the idea of jumping from a ledge knowing that death will be the out come of her actions. Who will be there to stop her since she doesnt matter? Not strong enough(374.35) she utters next. She doe snt yet have the courage to vaporise like a baby bird from a nest false of her window ledge. She pictures herself as a sparrow sillied and dizzied by the wind(374.39). The close she pictures herself as a sparrow because a sparrow is a bantam bird that is not considered to be a really important creature. Compared to a peddle or an eagle, a sparrow is a peasant bird, or an everyday bird. People have noticed sparrows before, but never pointed them out like they would if they were a hawk or an eagle. They would praise a hawk or an eagle, not a sparrow.Each line in the poem is building the young girl up to that state of mind where single death is the escape. Shes thinking of all the things that have led her up to this point.not good enough not strong enough / not smart enough(374.48-49)Maybe this way someone will eventually notice her. She hopes that they will bury / my bird bones beneath / a sturdy pine(374.57-59). The pine refers back to the beginning where she pictures herself as a male child. The pine represents what would have happened if she turned out to be a boy. This could also mean, that in the afterlife she wants to be as strong as a pine, hoping that she would be brought back in the afterlife as a boy.The suicide was a way for the college student to be noticed. It was very doomed that she had to take her own life just to get attention, and to get hold for all the things that she had done and still it wouldnt be good enough for her parents.