Imagery, Language, and Sound in What's That Smell in the Kitchen?Marge Piercy is an American writer, essayist, and poet best known for writing with a characteristic feminist bent. In "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?" Marge Piercy explores how women are sometimes held in low esteem by men through the eyes of a tired housewife who has had enough of her monotonous daily duties. In this poem it is not stated that the speaker is a housewife, but the reader is told about a particular woman who is supposed to express the feelings of the woman as a whole. The author conveys this central idea through images, figurative language, and sound devices. In the first lines of "What's that smell in the kitchen?" the author points out that women are burning dinners all over America. This gives us a general idea of ​​what the poem will be about, but makes us want to read on to see why this would happen; in other words, it triggers our curiosity. The author goes on to describe common foods in some cities in the United States, creating a very gustatory and olfactory image in the reader's mind. Next, the author uses repetition to once again emphasize her introductory statement and adds an additional phrase: “…women are burning/food they should bring with calico/smile on plates shining like wax.” This statement is somewhat ironic, because it conveys the image of a very "fake" woman, something like a mechanical doll or a robot, or even like the impeccable "model mom" figure of June Cleaver from the television series "Leave it to Beaver". " Not only do we imagine a woman in an apron with an artificial smile but Piercy alludes... in the center of the card ......ch can be interpreted as "I used to be top notch with all the trimmings but now I'm rubbish of low class." Spam is a cheaply processed meat, while roast duck is believed to be one of the best meats in existence; therefore it has been belittled or degraded by the lack of gratitude from the spouse and society. It is expressing the fact that society expects women to play the role of "little wife" without concern for the individual's interests. Furthermore, the woman in the poem compares her drive to food, and as this poem is loaded with images of war and food , we can say that Piercy is writing about a war with food, in which women use food as their main weapon against men (the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!) It is in this way that Piercy develops his view that women are the inferior gender in the eyes of men and shares his refusal to conform.