The woman’s life is graded with “marks.” A mark, meaning grade, is usually something that has nothing to do with a housewife or a mother. However, in this poem marks play a vital role in the speaker’s identity. Her family gives her grades as a housewife and a mother. The word “marks” compares and contrasts her life with standards that are not her own. Grades are a part of the woman’s life, for she is identified through them. Marks are the result of accomplishing a certain standard (e.g. 80% is a B, 90% and above is an A, etc). Students strive to get good grades because good grades equals good student. Grades identify who you are. It doesn’t matter how much time and effort you have spent – only the result counts. In this poem, the woman’s entire life is defined and evaluated with grades: for her husband she is an “A,” an incomplete, and a B+; for her son she is average; for her daughter she is a Pass. It is interesting that all the marks the woman receives from her family are not bad at all (besides the incomplete, which can be made up and replaced). However, the mother is not satisfied with the grading system, because it limits her life.
“Marks” meaning boundaries limits her life as a person. She cannot be herself anymore because her family does not see her as a person. For them, she is an A or a Pass – her life is evaluated by what she does and not by what she is. No one cares of her being a wife or a mother. Rather, they are concerned with what she does as she plays the role of a wife and a mother. Her life is imprisoned by the boundaries set by her family. She is not a being, but a thing – that is why the whole poem sounds very dull, dried up and emotionless. Especially “my ironing” (line 3) makes her seem cold and hard like iron.
A mark is also something you bear on your body (e.g. birthmark, stretch mark, etc.). It is a part of your body – a part of you. A mark does not disappear – you live with it your entire life. The marks the mother bears are scars of hurts and frustrations. The marks are also the grades that are engraved in her and accompany her everywhere she goes. Her feelings are effectively conveyed to the reader but she does not have the courage to express her feelings to her family until she realizes at the end of the poem that something must be done.
A mark is a runner’s starting point in a race. We say that life is like a race. “Keep on running towards the goal and don’t give up,” we hear. The woman realizes that she does not want to continue this race. There is no goal in this race she is running. Being tired of living up to someone else’s expectation, she wants to start a new race – a race she wants to run, a race that has a goal. Evaluating her life so far, she takes courage to change her life and start from the beginning: “Wait ‘til they learn/ I’m dropping out” (lines11-12). By “dropping out” she wants to get rid of the marks that she bears and truly live her own life. In order to erase the marks they put on her, she is “dropping out” of their standards and expectations. She is “dropping out” of the race they set for her to run. She will not let them evaluate her life anymore. She realizes that she has been deceived to believe that her life is marked with “marks.” Now she wants to start a new race of life and find her own self worth. Perhaps she has decided to leave her husband and kids, and “last night’s supper” (line2) was indeed last night’s supper.
Throughout the poem we clearly see the power of the metaphor “marks.” With its multiple meanings it gives the poem a profound meaning. For many, grades are marks of life – grades determine what kind of person you are. From early in our childhood our lives are evaluated by grades when we start school. This poem made me think about my life a lot – what marks my life? For the woman in this poem, the grades limited her life, causing her to live in boundaries set by others. The burden of carrying the “marks” within her seem to finally end when she gets “on her mark” to start a new race of her own.
