Assignment 4

Marge Piercy: "The Market Economy" (p. 414)

Though it may not seem so at first glance, Piercy's poem uses language in quite traditionally poetic ways. The first twenty lines have a rhetorical structure governed by the first work of the poem--the imperative "Suppose," repeated in line 9 and implied in line 17. The lines propose a hypothesis. A series of related questions invite the reader to respond, but the questions are rhetorical. The poet knows that our answer to these questions will be, "no, of course would not agree to such an offer." The poem then turns at line 21 when the poet responds to our objection, asking what are your alternatives to this bargain world created--more accurately, corrupted--by the market economy? The final lines offer a bit of mordant humor. The watchword of the market economy has always been caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). The world of capitalism has always created sellers ready to take advantage of the unsuspecting buyer. We all know the world of duplicity and deceit evoked by the phrase "fine print." Piercy seems to be saying that in the present advanced stage of capitalism, where the market economy is becoming increasingly free of regulation and restraint, there is no longer any need for contracts with fine print. There is no opting out if your only alternative is to live in Smog City under a "yellow sky."