Marks Response

              Marks by Linda Pastan was my favorite poem of the group and affected me the most because of the way that Pastan takes a problematic subject and adds a special twist to the structure.She takes a grading system that is usually used in schools and applies it to her family,but she is not grading her family.She is describing what she thinks her grade are,according to her family.The poem really grabbed me when I read the way that Pastan is being graded,it's not just the same system for everybody,which shows a reality in life,where not everything in life is not simple,and that sometimes things can get complicated and has to been seen in different perspective.

                        She describes how her husband gives her grades for different things such as ironing,cooking skills and her sexual skills in bed,this shows the only skills Pastan believes her husband  cares about.She is showing that she thinks that anything that doesn't have to with cooking,sex,or general skills around the house, doesn't matter to her husband.When she talks about what she thinks her son's grade is,she says that her son gives her an average,which is sort of an in between.It can mean that her son doesn't ask much of her.For her daughter,Pastan takes an unexpected turn when she switches the grading system.Pastan switches the grading system to a pass/fail system,which means that there are only two choices,which isn't a complimenting grading system because in this perspective,it applies to her parenting.She is saying that her daughter says that she passed but doesn't go any further than that, in other words,her daughter her just need her to show up for attendance, in this case, not leave the family, in order to "pass".

               I also like the poem because the more I read it,the more I started to discover new perspectives,such as the way she is speaking.Pastan is speaking as if,parenting,and being a wife, is much like going to school,and going to work.She is getting evaluated,and she is getting evaluated by different people.

     This poem touched me because it showed that nothing is really black and white.The part that got to me the most is the last two lines where she says "little do they know,I'm dropping out",because dropping out,of anything is pretty much a thing that is not good,but the term is usually used for work or school but she used it for parenting and wife-hood,which is a big deal because she is basically saying that she is leaving the family.  -Ralph Picado