19 pages • 38 minutes read
Dorothy ParkerResume
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1926A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Résumé
The poem’s title adds to the irony of the overall work, as it twists the conventional meaning of résumé. Typically, a résumé is a document in which a person lists their qualifications for a job. To get hired, a person tries to present themselves in the best possible way. The poem isn’t a list of admirable traits but a compendium of ways to die by suicide. Thus, the résumé represents an absence of accomplishment. Dying by suicide isn’t an activity that a person should publicize—there’s nothing positive about it. The harm and stress caused by attempting to die by suicide only generate negatives.
Arguably, the symbolism transforms the act of attempting to die by suicide into a person with a toxic résumé. The noxious document pushes the reader not to hire or choose them. The “you” (Lines 1, 3, 8) shouldn’t employ death by suicide and the associated harms: They should choose life. Life doesn't come with any accomplishments, but, unlike, dying by suicide, the speaker doesn't bond life to a firm negative.
Life
The theme of The Hardships of Life makes life a symbol of struggle, and the allure of attempting death by suicide bolsters the symbolism. Put another way, if life wasn’t distressing and difficult, people wouldn’t feel the urge to end it. From this viewpoint, Parker collapses the distinction between life and death by suicide. The negative qualities that come with attempting to die by suicide are already a part of life. If a person wants “pain” (Line 1), a “cramp” (Line 4), or appalling “smell[s]” (Line 7), they don’t need to attempt death by suicide: A person “might as well live” (Line 8) because life already represents an arduous experience. Thus, the symbolism is ironic in that death by suicide doesn’t end The Hardships of Life. Since the person feels the “damp” (Line 2) and sees the “stain” (Line 3), they presumably survive and now must confront the hardships they’ve added to their life.
Death by Suicide
Parker turns attempting death by suicide into a material experience. There are no overt emotions but a series of palpable acts and consequences. From the viewpoint of this symbolism, suicide represents a kind of materialism, and the titular “résumé” functions as a bad review—a reason not to hire the candidate or buy the tangible item. Death by suicide will stain, cause a “cramp” (Line 4), and isn’t sturdy—it will “give” way (Line 7). In other words, death by suicide is a product that a person shouldn’t buy. The material experience behind suicide reduces it to a matter of sensible consumerism. If a commodity had a similar series of inferior traits, a consumer would likely stay away from it.
Turning suicide into a commodity allows the speaker to speak in a blunt, flippant tone. By discarding the complex feelings and mindset that can lead a person to attempt death by suicide, the speaker makes a straightforward case against it. In a sense, the speaker tells the reader not to buy into the appeal of death, because suicide is a faulty product. Life isn’t a wonderful cure-all, but the speaker doesn’t assign it explicitly negative traits, making life a less egregious product than death by suicide.
