During my first LLA class in the second week, we’ve made an analysis on a poem entitled, Barbie Doll. “ This poem tells a story about a girl that worked so hard to make herself look pretty” that thought brushed into my mind when I first read the poem. However, after going through the discussions in the LLA class, I began to realize that this poem was actually holding bigger messages than what I’ve thought it had in the first place. 

     “ Society is our biggest problem”, I think that is the best remark I should give after reading this poem. Why am I saying this? Feeling insecure, having low self-confidence, over-analyzing things; these are the problems that girls nowadays had to deal with because of all the treatments the society had been giving us. And because of this, I would boldly claim that our society is being too judgemental and overly concerning about physical appearances and external beauty instead of focusing towards the positive qualities that someone has. 

     . Girls, we were raised with girlie stuff since we were small. Clear examples would be make up stuff like lipstick, miniature cooking toys and Barbie dolls. Smooth and fair skin, sexy lips, slim waist, wavy-blonde and long hair; these are the characteristics that came into my mind whenever we talk about Barbie dolls. Because of this, girls had been living with wrong perceptions that we should grow up to be as beautiful as a Barbie doll. However, I think that this is something that would be really hard to achieve. Why? Because we are not perfect. However, just like what the writer had been trying to emphasize  in this poem; the society did not understand this! They are too busy analyzing and criticizing. Because of this, we are actually living in an environment where it is really hard to be ourselves because people are busy directing our life and telling us what to do and how to behave. 

     I am very sure that the main question that will be posted by readers, especially girls after reading this poem is, “ Why can’t we be ourselves?”. The society is pushing girls really hard that girls nowadays have to live as someone else. Girls are over-dieting and over-exercising to make themselves look good enough to be accepted by the society despite the fact that they are actually feeling tired living in this kind of bad life cycle. And this is what the line “Her good nature wore out, like a fan belt” ( line 4&5, stanza 3) is trying to tell us. 

     What I learned through this lesson was, we have to live our life the way how we want to live because life is ours. Yes, I do believe that beauty and physical appearance are important. However it should not be something that will stop us from being who we actually are. It is true that we should not blame the society blindly as this problem arise because of  too. This is why, I think that we should appreciate ourselves even more and stop comparing ourselves with someone who is better than us because everyone has their own specialty. Those who mistrust their own abilities are being too wicked to themselves, discouraging themselves from doing what they should have been excelling in and this is why we should always be grateful to be born as who we are today.

     In today class, we had analyzed a song entitled, Cat’s In The Cradle, sang by Harry Chapin. However, in the beginning of the lesson, we were shown a video regarding the sacrifices that all fathers would have done for the sake of their children’s happiness. Through that video, I began to realize that parents are the people who tend to live in lies. They literally lie about everything; they sacrificed their sleep to take care of their sick children even though there are due dates to catch up with at work, they smile although they are tired, they laugh even though there are invisible pain that left a scar deep inside their heart. Nobody can ever live in lies throughout their life, but parents can. Although they are tired because all of the hardships they have to go through just to raise us, however, it is our happiness that gives them the courage to keep moving through this harsh journey. The video that were shown was really inspirational because it gave me the consciousness to take a few seconds to reflect all my actions towards my parents because it is undeniable that all of their sacrifices are priceless and should be appreciated even more. In fact, many of us; me and my classmates, shed into tears when the video was played.

     Next, we began to listen to the song and analyze the literal meaning of the song. The song gave a very massive impact on me because it reflects the actual problem that is really happening in our society nowadays. Parents are busy with their work and their children are left out and ignored. It is true that we cannot blindly put all the blames on the parents because they have pure intentions which is to provide happiness and luxury for their children. However, it is also important for them too, to be aware of the basic things that their children crave from them. Children need affections from their parents, however there are parents who could not realize this problem because they are too busy chasing their dreams. 

     Children observe and children do. This is why parents should act and behave very well in front of their children. In fact, as I analyze the song, I realize that at the end, the son behave and become exactly the same as his father. It happens not because of revenge the son has towards his father. However, this happens because this is how the son had been raised all this while; without getting attention from his father. The father could not blame his son and in fact, he did not regret at all because he realizes it himself, that everything that happens now is caused by him.