Analysis of “Dangerous Life”
written by Lucia Perillo Read the poem by clicking…wait….okay, right here. “Dangerous Life” speaks of a difficult decision that the speaker has to make. She begins the poem right off by recalling the moment she dropped out of medical school. Of course, given that medical school is known for being extremely difficult and stressful, the reader might at first infer that the speaker quit for these reasons. However, she quit because she discovered that the “stiff they gave me had book 9 of Paradise Lost and the lyrics to “Louie Louie” tattooed on her thighs.” The poem does not directly specify the exact reason why this discernment pushed the speaker to her withdrawal, yet one can assume that the tattoo made the cadaver seem too alive for the speaker--too human, per se. Seeing the words inked across the body’s thighs could have made it unbearable for the speaker to work and made her cognizant that her whole career would consist of working with real people, with their whole existence in her own hands. Obviously, this decision to leave medical school was not so burdensome to the speaker. There is no evident remorse or difficulty of her exit from medical school. The speaker goes on to speak of the rest of her day, almost brushing off the fact that she has dropped out of medical school. She discusses her encounter with a Bunsen burner. With use of enjambment, it at first appears that the speaker puts her hand directly on a Bunsen burner in an effort to burn herself, but upon further reading it is revealed that she burns an old Girl Scout sash and the badges attached to it. The badges are for “Careers…Cookery, Seamstress...and Baby Maker,” which the speaker says are a “measure of my worth.” It appears that these exact badges are actually more representative of societal expectations of what women should do and be like. The cooking badge is something actually useful and might have truly been handed out by the Girl Scouts. However, babymaker edges more towards offensive, and this is presumably why she burns the badges. She is giving the middle finger to the world and its expectations in a her own small but efficient way. Only one badge is salvaged: “I kept the merit badge marked Dangerous Life.” She recalls when she was awarded the pin. The poem shifts and the narrator’s mother is mentioned. Her mother calls her, complaining about what people think of a woman who is “”thirty, unsettled, living on food stamps, coin-op Laundromats & public clinics.” Even her own mother is unable to see past the harsh and unreasonable expectations which have been put upon her daughter. Instead of trying to help her daughter and understand the problem, the mother chooses instead to judge and become angry. The narrator, instead of succumbing to the hatred, continues on, showing her own strength. She speaks of how she occasionally takes the “lanyards from their shoebox, practice baying...to the moon.” The Dangerous Life badge is one thing in her life that is constant and reminds her to keep going, because “a smart girl could find her way out of anything, alive.” The narrator realizes that she lives a dangerous life and believes that she really can make it through anything life throws at her. The difficult decision is made to simply keep going, and that is exactly what she does. Maybe she is not good enough for medical school or society, but she has a badge for Dangerous Life, and she is going to keep living and surviving. -Steven
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