Resume

Parker’s poem links to many different genres. In it, Parker mocks a fatal issue; this humorous yet critical presentation of death lends itself to satire even as it teaches a lesson: Choose life over death. Since “Résumé” contains a moral, it is considered a didactic poem, in addition to being a satirical one. The speaker wants the reader to learn something specific about death by suicide, so they dictate a message, and the poem carries a clear takeaway: Life is less adverse than death by suicide. The speaker directs this message at an unnamed “you” (Lines 1, 3, 8), turning the poem into a letter or an epistle (epistola is Latin for “letter”). With the epistolary genre, the reader feels as if they are reading the private communication between the speaker and the mysterious “you.” Since the poem is on the short side and expresses the speaker’s feelings, it is also a lyric.

The identity of the speaker is debatable. From the view of the authorial context, the speaker is Dorothy Parker. Parker often thought about death, and she tried to end her life several times. If the speaker is Parker, then, plausibly, she is the audience, too. In other words, Parker writes the poem to herself to try to stop her harmful behavior. While identifying Parker as the speaker can support an autobiographical analysis of the poem, leaving the speaker nameless doesn’t prohibit a deep understanding of the work.

Out of consideration for Parker, the person, and Parker’s poetic persona, separating the speaker and Parker is less fraught. The speaker is still witty and knowledgeable, and they maintain an advisory relationship with the “you,” who doesn’t have to be Parker either. Instead, the audience can be any person who has had thoughts about death by suicide. By using the personal pronoun “you,” the speaker creates an intimate link with the reader and talks directly to them. The intensity of the speaker-audience relationship matches the intense consequences of suicidal feelings.

The poem is playful; the alliteration, the rhyme, and the repeated rising and falling rhythm add to its flippant tone. The juxtaposition between the tone and the potentially lethal subject bolsters the satiric genre. That is to say, the speaker’s light-hearted voice contrasts with suicide ideation, and the clash highlights the seriousness of the latter. The cheekiness of Parker’s wordplay undercuts the reader’s typical expectations about how a poem about suicide should sound. This gives the speaker authenticity, making it more likely that the reader will listen to the speaker's message. While the poem is didactic, the speaker’s voice isn’t formulaic. The unique stylistic approach creates a bond with the reader, as the reader isn’t listening to another serious lecture about suicide; arguably, the humorous tone makes the message more impactful.

Even though the tone isn’t formulaic, the poem does follow a formula. In Lines 1-7, the speaker addresses a potential way to die by suicide before listing an unpleasant consequence—a reason not to choose that method. The playful tone throughout undercuts the gravity of suicide. In a sense, the speaker holds each method of suicide up for the reader’s inspection before they flick it away, as if it were a trivial thing.

The first method is cutting, and the speaker declares, “Razors pain you” (Line 1). Using a razor to bleed to death likely will cause keen suffering or discomfort, so the speaker discards the use of razors. The diction contributes to the snappy, lighthearted tone. The words are short, with no single word totaling more than two syllables. The curt sounds create a quick, quippy rhythm that doesn’t give the reader any space to argue with the speaker’s caustic logic.

A person shouldn’t drown themselves in a river because “[r]ivers are damp” (Line 2). If a person enters a body of water, they are likely to come out wet, which can cause discomfort. The image adds to the absurdity of the satire. From one angle, the person doesn’t die by suicide, and now they have to confront their wet clothes. From another angle, the person dies by suicide, or, while drowning, they’re annoyed by how “damp” they are becoming. Death takes a backseat to the relatively frivolous annoyance.

Poisoning is an option, but “[a]cids stain” (Line 3). As with the river, the acid image is a ridiculous one. Perhaps the person is swallowing poisonous acid and becoming concerned about the lethal mixture damaging their clothes or skin. Maybe the person doesn’t die from acid, and now they are upset by what the acid has done to their clothes. A third interpretation suggests the acid didn’t kill the person but damaged them permanently, like a “stain.” The quick diction leaves a lot unsaid, so the reader can imagine the range of unhealthy consequences of drinking poison and not dying.

Overdosing on drugs is unattractive, specifically because the method can “cause cramp” (Line 4). The alliteration adds to the poem’s overall whimsy, not unlike that of a nursery rhyme, which contributes to the poem’s irony. The irony—or twist—is that “cause cramp” is pleasant to say, but the cramps aren’t pleasant.

The legality of guns is also ironic. In the United States, guns are lawful, whereas the line in the poem reads “Guns aren’t lawful” (Line 5). The Second Amendment expresses “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” (Congress.gov), so a person can legally own a gun. Many Americans, however, think guns should be unlawful or strictly regulated, while others own guns and don’t use them to shoot themselves or other people.

Irony continues with “[n]ooses give” (Lines 6). Here, the twist lies with the word “give.” The speaker turns the potentially deadly rope into a benevolent object. The rope “gives” the person a gift: Another chance at life. The rope doesn’t hold, so the person doesn’t die by suicide.

“Gas smells awful” (Line 7) maintains the nitpicky attitude of the previous lines. The speaker highlights a method of dying by suicide—gas asphyxiation—and then points to a relatively trivial reason not to do it. Thus, a person should avoid ending their life via gas, not because life is wonderful and the person has so much to live for, but because gas smells bad. The focus on the minor aspects helps the reader see the bigger picture, but it also contributes to the humorous presentation of an otherwise serious topic.

Parker’s speaker stays away from stock tropes about life. The speaker isn’t hyperbolic, so they wearily tell the reader, “You might as well live” (Line 8). The subdued affirmation furthers the speaker’s authenticity. They don’t deny the hardships of life. The phrase “might as well” (Line 8) indicates that life frequently isn’t pleasant, but it’s less unpleasant than death by suicide.

The final line generates the main theme: Suicide Versus Life. After listing the ways of dying by suicide and identifying their main faults, the speaker settles on life. However, the diction indicates that life is upsetting. This connects to another theme: The Allure of Death and Self-Harm. The speaker counters the imputed attraction by concisely expressing a concomitant drawback. Together, these themes produce a third critical theme: The Hardships of Life. Life possesses struggles and pain, tempting a person to think about suicide or harming themselves. In the poem, such actions produce additional anguish, so people should live and not add to the difficulties that are already a part of life.