the woman who shopped

• The Woman Who Shopped is a criticism of consumerism.
• The poem is split into two - 7 stanzas each which could represent the days of the week.
• "bought an apple, red as first love's heart"

  • Biblical allusion to the temptation of Eve - desire has always been part of humankind
  • Simile contrasts to the end of the stanza when she "ditched" her "suitor"
• "looked at the gold of her ring as it flashed in the sun"

  • She gets married for the flashy gesture and excitement, not sentimentality or love
  • She cares for the gold, not the symbolism of the ring
• "shuffle his plastic with hers, deal them out in the shops for cutlery, crockery, dishwashers..."

  • "shuffle" and "deal" are associated with gambling - a typical addiction for men
  • Asyndetic domestic list - she never stops buying. The list continues into the next stanza to portray the unending nature of her shopping
• "took to the streets, where the lights from the shops ran like paint in the rain"

  • Evicted? Homeless?
  • Her consumption is leeching out into everything - the beauty of what she buys is a thin facade hiding reality
• "She was stone, was concrete and glass"

  • Her addiction has stripped her of her humanity
  • She is just a manifestation of her materialism
• "her breath ... the whisper of tissue and string, ... the changing rooms of her heart"

  • There is no permanence in her identity
  • The essence of her life - breath and heart -is reduced to the flimsiness of wrapping paper and meaninglessness of changing rooms
• "She would have a sale and crowds would queue overnight at her cunt, desperate for bargains"

  • She is now cheapened, and sells herself for less than her value
  • Crude language, matches the degradation of the woman's spiritual existence
  • Prostitution is the only way she can have enough money to fuel her addiction