Upon a close reading of her poems, the works of Dorothy Parker clearly reflect influences and aspects of her personal life and experiences. We see many of her poems seem to reflect her lack of success in relationships with the opposite sex, stemming from "her emotional dependence on men who didn't love her, but were willing to use her for their own career advantage" (Bio 2, 2009, p. 2). This is clearly one of the depressing aspects of her life. This is evident in the poem News Item, in which Parke laments one of her most famous barbs, "Men don't make passes / At girls who wear glasses" (Parker, 2009, p. 1). However, other times in her life that were depressing include the death of her mother when she was two, the death of her brother Henry "aboard the Titanic," and the economic collapse of her father who died a year later (Bio 1, 2009, p. 1). We can see these are painful experiences in Parker's life that were depressing.
We see that Parker's suicidal ideation and focus in the poem Resume may also derive from these depressing incidents in her life. Parker is very pointed in tone and extremely sarcastic in listing a number of ways one could kill one's self that are so unpleasant they provide the only motivation or will to choose life instead of suicide. As Parker (2009) writes, "Razors pain you; / Rivers are damp; / acids stain you; / And drugs cause cramp. / Guns aren't lawful; / nooses give; / Gas smells awful; / You might as well live" (p. 1). Clearly, someone who is thinking about taking their life by pouring acid on himself or herself is someone who is depressed and suicidal. Parker's life experiences provided the inspiration for such poems, but it must be recognized that Parker did, indeed, choose life over suicide despite all of the misfortunes in her life.
Parker wrote or co-wrote the scripts of thirty-nine films in Hollywood (Bio 2, 2009, p. 2). No doubt while there, she must have realiz...