Response to Marks by Linda Pastan

    I responded to this poem with the emotion of  anger initially at the thought her her being judged. I took it personal as a woman and a mother the thought of being judged.  I hate nothing more than someone feels they have the right to tell me about me, what I should do, or give input on Stacey. No specific word triggered my emotions the first 10 lines as a whole brought this out of me.  I was like what? this is crazy.  Then at then the end the lines when she said  Wait til' they learn, I'm dropping out. I felt happy for her and happy for me when threw out idea of being watched and evaluated.  In this poem a woman is speaking in general freeing herself from the stress an obsessing over being who other people believe she is and should be.  I myself as a 27 year old woman recently reached the point where  I could care less about people's perceptions or expectations of who I am or who I should be. It was not easy  to reach that point in life and to get there you have to go through a lot and reach a certain breaking point.  I believe the poet wrote this poem with the purpose of expressing the her disdain of the societal expectations of what a woman is.  It makes a lot of sense that this poem was written in 1978 because that is when the women's feminist movement was in full swing. During that time period women were rebelling from what men told them they could or could not do. Linda Pastan's poem was perfectly written for the time she was living in.  The message she sent is one that even in 2014 a woman can take in and respect.