You Always Want What You Can'T Have

As Robert Harris stated in “The Purpose and Method of Satire,” satire is "a literary manner which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit.” In order for a satirical piece to be successful it must contain a variety of characteristics. Among these include irony, sarcasm, ridicule, wit, criticism, and exaggeration. The literary works, “A Few Words About Breasts: Shaping Up Absurd,” by Nora Ephron and Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez contain many of these characteristics. Both of these works are similar in the sense that they both criticize and ridicule different aspects of physical appearance, yet the situation and outcomes are slightly different.

Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American movie whose plot revolves around Ana Garcia, a Mexican-American teenager living in an East Los Angeles barrio. With encouragement from her teacher, Ana has dreams of attending Columbia University. However, before achieving her goal she must try to balance her mother’s traditional view of women with her own contemporary ideas while dealing with self-image issues. Her mother wants her to work in the sweat shop like the rest of the family in order to help support them. Throughout the play Ana is constantly criticized and ridiculed by her mother about her heavy weight. For example, at her graduation party someone offers Ana a piece of cake, and Ana’s mother responds by saying, “Can’t you see she’s bigger than the cake!” This is a true example of ridicule because Ana’s mother embarrassed her in front of others. From this example, it is understood that exaggeration is a common technique used in satirical pieces.

“A Few Words About Breasts: Shaping Up Absurd” has a very similar theme as Real Women Have Curves. However, most of the ridiculing in this literary work comes straight from the narrator herself. Nora Ephron is distressed by her lack of chest and constantly criticizes others for what they have and she doesn’t. I can directly relate to this piece of literature and understand where Ephron is coming from. A lack of certain physical features or characteristics can certainly cause one to become very self conscious and lower their self esteem. However, one must look past the ridiculing and find the good features that they contain. For example, I am often criticized and ridiculed by the lack of my chest, yet I look past it and stand strong. During most of these instances the person is only joking, yet this is when the satirical aspect comes in to play. It is a known fact that I lack certain features and when someone is ridiculing this, it can definitely get under the skin. The satirical aspect of it however can take the focus off of the ridiculing and help it become comical.

There is one more specific instance in which I can directly relate to Nora Ephron. Nora noticed the development of others around her and did not get why it was not happening to her. She would constantly ask her mother for a bra and her mother would respond by, “what for?” I can remember back to when I was younger and my older sister started wearing bras. I wanted to be just like her. Although I was not yet developed and was two years younger, I did not understand and wanted to be like her and her friends who all wore bras. I would wait and wait just like Ephron did and when my friends started developing, I still was not. This can be very hard on ones self-esteem, yet one should be reminded that it is not how one looks, but the inner qualities are what really matter.

I can certainly relate to the feelings of Ephron, but I agree with the saying “you always want what you can’t have.” At the end of the piece, Nora explains how her friends, the ones with the “nice big breasts,” would go on endlessly about how their lives had been far more miserable than hers. They told Nora how much they did not enjoy having large breasts and informed her of how lucky she was. This clearly demonstrates the saying, “you always want what you can’t have.” Nora prayed for nice big breasts while her friends who had them despised them. Instead of listening to her friends, the narrative ends with Nora not being able to consider their point of view. Nora proclaims, “I think they are full of shit.”

Real Women Have Curves ends in a completely different manner. All throughout the movie Ana lets her mother tell her what to do and puts up with her ridiculing. My favorite scene in the