"A Sad Child"

by: Margaret Atwood

You're sad because you're sad.It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.Go see a shrink or take a pill,or hug your sadness like an eyeless dollyou need to sleep.Well, all children are sadbut some get over it.Count your blessings. Better than that,buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet.Take up dancing to forget.Forget what?Your sadness, your shadow,whatever it was that was done to youthe day of the lawn partywhen you came inside flushed with the sun,your mouth sulky with sugar,in your new dress with the ribbonand the ice-cream smear,and said to yourself in the bathroom,I am not the favorite child.My darling, when it comesright down to itand the light fails and the fog rolls inand you're trapped in your overturned bodyunder a blanket or burning car,and the red flame is seeping out of youand igniting the tarmac beside you heador else the floor, or else the pillow,none of us is;or else we all are.

In "A Sad Child" by Margaret Atwood, she uses imagery, metaphor, and diction to depict how some women (or a girl) may feel about becoming a woman. The speaker in this poem seems to be a girl or woman describing their feelings to a younger girl about the first time she menstruated, while also telling her feelings about the treatment of females in society.

The speaker can be assumed to be a female because of the imagery used. Dolls, a dress, sugar, and a riboon are mentioned, whoch can be easiy associated with girls. GIrls are thought of as swet, having dolls, and wearing ribbons and dresses. There is the imagery of blood which can be linked to the menstrual cycle, "in the bathroom", "trapped in your overturned body", "red flame seeping out of you". The way that the speaker ran in to go to the bathroom and abruptly says" I am not the favorite child" can be associated with a girls first menstruation due to the fact that it signifies coming of age, and usually the younger children are the favorites, makin gher not be the favorite now that she has grown. The line "trapped in your overturned body" can depict how a girl feels, because the situation is out of her control because it is a normal bodily function.

In regards to ths theory, metaphor is used in the second stanza by how it says, "buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet. Take up dancing to forget." This metaphor stands for covering up one's feelings and forgetting them. These things are distractions and material objects to cover up one's feelings. This shows how the female speaker feels that she is not truly cared bout, but given things and pushed to the side, whilethe males are not given gifts and said to just "take a pill" to cover up their emotions.

Now if you think about Atwood's writing, this menstrual cycle theory for the poem fits her sarcastic nature. She describes the experience as a horrible thin, trying to make the statement that women shouyld not let things like their bodily functions hold them back and dont let males use it against them. Basically, she is hinting at the oppression of women in society.