

In the poem, "Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money," by Joyce Carol Oates, a "typical" woman is stuck in the ways of the stereotypical housewife.  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 employed to help set the tone of the poem and to further illustrate the setting. Repetition is also consistent throughout the poem in order to exert a strong sense of desolation. Description, tone, and repetition are the key points within the poem that help to explain how women continue to be stereotyped throughout 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" (6-8). The adjectives used by the speaker to describe the scenery began 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 produces an image of a woman cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping. These three tasks are typical of a "stay at home" mom or of a "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; ones that should not be tiring for her 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, returning to when women could never earn a higher spot in neither the workplace nor in the home. Similarly, within the last stanza of the poem the speaker 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 stooping when bending over to place things in the oven and take things out of it, but figuratively stooping because her moral standards are so low. Her only obligations are to cook dinner, to clean the dishes, and to place the dishes where they belong.

The descriptive words lead to the development of the tone of the poem, which helps to suggest the speaker's overall emotion. In "Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives are Money" the description results in a resentful and sorrowful tone. The woman speaking in the poem insinuates that she has given up and 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: she has nothing to look forward to and nothing to show off or pride herself in. The house being quiet is also a metaphor of her life; her life is quiet and lacking excitement. She is stooped and her morale is low. Resentment and anger are 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 the future of women. The speaker is also angry that there is a constant cycle of antifeminism: that a woman is known not to hold any true power and that she is "supposed" to be delicate. Women are highly 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 (15-24).

The woman explains that despite men working constantly, they are doing something productive and not just making lunches that do not 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 free time, she knows what it is like to live as if life has no meaning and to only do busy work that does not get appreciated. 

Lastly, the use of repetition establishes a sense of importance about the presence of feminism within the modern world. "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 stresses the habitualness of the tasks 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.

In the poem "Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money" the description of the setting combined with the use of descriptive adjectives helps to immerse the reader into its imagery and to develop the tone of the poem. Jealously and resentment are expressed throughout the poem as the speaker develops a sense of emotion toward antifeminism. Setting, tone, and description are all used to develop the point that women are still considered as mere possessions. They continue to struggle throughout the 21st century to earn true stature and authority within both the home and the workplace, thus repositioning women back at the bottom of the totem pole and making them struggle to be noticed. 

