Wanda Why arent you Dead

The poem Wanda why aren’t you dead, reveals the authors struggle to be herself when surrounded by a judgmental group.

The first two stanzas point out all of the authors faults in a drilling blunt fashion. The anaphora of her name creates a sense of being overwhelmed, and cornered, by others. Her name is used as a weapon against her, her identity is used as a weapon against her. The frequency of her name has the same effect as excessive propaganda; it gets in the authors head. Many lines are questions but they have no question marks, their said as judgments. Instead of people asking questions to understand her they “ask” questions to put her into a vulnerable position, where she will need to justify who she is, but ultimately they don’t want to listen to her response. There is an instance of advice which has confusing syntax, “if I were you were you were you.” the advice is confusing and useless, leading only to misunderstanding. In that line there were three “you’s” and only one “I” indicating how she feels that people constantly judge her but rarely look at themselves.

The third stanza describes people taking interest in Wanda’s sexual preference and sex life, which shows how people take warp her identity to suit their interests. Instead of “asking” questions they are telling her who to be. “Tell me you’re ac/dc.” It isn’t completely clear if what is being said about her sexuality is true or not. However it does show that people take interest in her only in a way that interests them. When someone takes interest in your life, there are generally positive connotations involved, people like you and want to get to know you. But here it’s the reverse it’s degrading because people are telling her to be what interests them, they see an aspect of her and they like an aspect of her, but that is all they see and that is all they think she should be.

The poem Wanda why aren’t you dead reveals the struggle between an individual and society. The character is seen as something to be used for the pleasure of society and the criticizers are constantly telling her how to fit in. Wanda is being lectured she feels as though society is punishing her for her identity when they take an interest in part of her, they attempt to warp her identity to suit their interests. She is showing how she has to struggle to get control her identity.