Marks by Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan is an American poet with a Jewish background. She was born in 1932 in New York. She is well known for writing about family life and motherhood.

In the poem "Marks" by Linda Pastan, the author uses an extended metaphor to compare being evaluated as a mother to being evaluated in school. The speaker of the poem is a wife and a mother who is constantly being judged by her husband and her children. Her husband grades her on dinner, "My husband gives mr an A/ for last night's supper," and on her failure to iron, "an incomplete for my ironing." The husband even goes as far as to grade his wife in sex. The children of the mother also grade her. The children only give their mother okay marks. This is hard on the mother. Every mom wants their children to think highly of her. She wants to be the best mom to them and they give her decent marks. These average marks and the pressure her family puts on her, leads the speaker to a dark ending. The speaker is metaphorically "dropping out" of school. This represents her commiting sucide. She is dropping out of life. The pressure of being graded in every aspect of life has become to much for the speaker to handle. The speaker could be Linda Pastan herself. Linda, like the speaker, is both a mother and a wife. The speaker could also represent women everywhere who are tired of being judged all the time.