Analysis Of What's That Spell In The Kitchen

Roast Duck or Spam

Men’s selfishness and unwillingness to take their women feeling into consideration, can lead to undesirable thoughts of that woman. As we see in this poem “What’s That Spell In The Kitchen” written by Marge Piercy. In her this poem, where is the sarcasm coming from? What is her emotional state? And what is her outlook on men? Let’s start with the first question. Where is this sarcasm stemming from? The beginning of the poem suggests that a man, perhaps her husband, has offended her in some way. You can almost hear it according to the first few lines, “All over America women are burning dinners. Its lamb chops in Peoria, it’s haddock in Providence, it’s steak in Chicago…(Piercy 1240)”. It’s as if she is standing in the kitchen
It’s my opinion that she is not only hurt, but angry. That’s how it usually works. First you’re hurting, and then that hurt turns to anger. This woman is filled with hurt and anger. She’s stating things like “Anger sputters in her brainpan confined but spewing out missiles of hot fat (Piercy 1241)”. As men we need to realize that woman feelings at times should be placed before our own. The third point is obvious; she’s not thrilled with her man right now. If it was up to her, she wouldn’t be only burning his food, but him as well. “If she wants to grill anything, it’s her husband spitted over a slow fire, if she wants to serve him anything, it’s a dead rat with a bomb in its belly ticking like the heart of an insomniac (Piercy 1241)”. This woman is having some terrible thinking at this point. I believe this woman is grieving over the way her man has been treating her. He’s obviously been taken her for granted. As men, we should realize that we are not the center of the universe. Our mate makes us complete. We need to put our woman where she belongs; on a platter as roast duck not in a can like spam, because “Hell has no fury like a woman