

There is a woman, a "typical" woman who is stuck in the ways of a stereotypical housewife. The poem, "Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money," by Joyce Carol Oates suggests that there is a woman who is discontent with the quality of her daily life. Throughout the poem there are a significant amount of diverse adjectives to help set the tone of the poem and to further illustrate the setting. Repetition is also consistent throughout the poem to exert a strong sense of desolation. Description, tone, and repetition are key points within the poem that help to explain that women are still stereotyped within the 21st century. 

Joyce Carol Oates opens up the poem with a vivid description of a rainy Monday morning. The speaker immediately seems discontent and bored with the way she is "gazing at the weedy bumpy yard / at the faces beginning to take shape / on the wavy mud." The adjectives used by the speaker to describe the scenery begin to morph the setting as gloomy and lusterless. The speaker is depicted to be in a kitchen "breaking eggs with care / scraping garbage from the plates / unpacking groceries hand over hand-" (11-14). This description is of a woman cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping. These three tasks are typical of a "stay at home" mom or "housewife." Later on, the poem implies that women gather together to gossip for fun. 

There are long evenings, 

panel discussions on abortions, fashions, meaningful work

there are love scenes where people mouth passions 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

the men whose lives are money

fidget as these strangers embrace and weep and mis-

understand and forgive and die and weep and embrace (32-34, 38-40)

The woman and her fellow companions get together for tiring evenings that to her shouldn't be tiring in the first place. They sit and watch soap operas because they have nothing better to do. The image formed reminds the reader of a group of women gathered around a black and white television, almost like when women never earned their higher spot in the workplace nor in the home. Similarly, within the last stanza of the poem the woman is both literal and figurative when saying "their mothers stoop / the oven doors settle with a thump / the dishes are rinsed and stacked (63-65)." She is physically stooped when bending over when placing things in and taking them out of the oven, but figuratively stooped because her moral standards are so low. Her only obligations are to cook, clean the dishes, and place them where they belong.

The overall tone of the poem results in resentment and sorrow. The woman speaking in the poem insinuates that she has given up, she no longer cares whether it is sunny or raining, to her it is all the same. 

by mid-morning the house is quiet 

it is raining out back

or not raining

the relief of emptiness rains

simple, terrible, routine

at peace (66-71).

The woman's routine will be repeated day after day disregarding what the weather has in store. The only rain she feels is emptiness, that she has nothing to look forward to, and nothing to show off or pride herself in. The house being quiet is a metaphor for her life; her life is quiet, lacking excitement, she is stooped and her moral low. Resentment and anger is further developed through the tone when the woman says, "Where are the promised revelations / Why have they been shown so many times?" (45-46). The promised revelations are women's rights; what some women spent years fighting and protecting for future women. The speaker is angry that there is a constant cycle of feminism and that a woman isn't supposed to hold any true power and she is "supposed" to be delicate and powerless. The woman is resentful towards the life of men. 

Wednesday evening: he takes the cans out front 

Tough plastic with detachable lids

Thursday morning: the garbage truck whining at 7

Friday the shopping mall open till 9 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

time and a half Saturdays

the lunchbag unfolded with care and brought back home

unfolded Monday morning 

The woman explains that even though men work constantly, at least they're doing something and not just making lunches that don't even get eaten. The speaker seems bitter and jealous towards the life of men regardless of how little free time they have; since she has so much free time she knows what it is like to live as if life has no meaning and no purpose but to do busy work that doesn't get appreciated. 

Lastly, the use of repetition establishes a sense of importance that the speaker is trying to get across. "Women whose lives are food / men whose lives are money (11, 21, 25, 37, 38)" is repeated multiple times throughout the poem. The repetition of these lines adds stressed importance that makes the task seem habitual to the woman within the poem. The woman repeats these lines multiple times to get the point across that women's lives revolve solely around stereotypical tasks of cleaning, cooking, and caring for the man of the house; all while the men get to earn power and stature in the "real" world. Figuratively, the repetition of these lines is also a deeper look into the way the woman repeats her life, day after day doing the same things, to the point where the days all blend together and there's never anything to look forward to. 

In the poem "Women Whose Lives are Food, Men Whose Lives are Money" the description of the setting as well as the use of descriptive adjectives to immerse the reader into imagery help to develop the tone of the poem as jealous and resentful. Setting, tone, and description are all used to develop the point that women are still considered as possession. They still struggle within the 21st century to earn true stature and authority within the home and workplace, thus placing women back at the bottom of the totem pole; making them struggle to be noticed. 

