The Evaluation
In the poem “Marks”, Linda Pastan describes the life of a woman who plays the role of a mother and a wife. By using a controlling metaphor and the lack of descriptive words, the author portrays the dullness of her life caused by the strains of the imprisonment by her family. The metaphor appears to be one of a student receiving grades. This metaphor gives an impression that the relationship between the narrator and her family is somewhat distant because of the evaluations. Rather than feeling like the world to her family, she feels as though she is just a mother and just a wife. She is constantly evaluated by her family with each member having a grading system of their own. In the first four lines the narrator says, “My husband gives me an A for last night’s supper, an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed.” Receiving a grade in the first place suggests that these tasks were assigned and like the expectancy of teacher, it should be completed without any excuses. She received an A for last night’s supper but received an incomplete for the ironing. This is probably the case because she didn’t complete the ironing. The fact that she even received a grade for her performance in bed even more pushes one to feel the lack of affection between the narrator and her husband.