Powerful Emotion in Louise Gluck's The School Children

925 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Poem analysis

Powerful Emotion in Louise Gluck's The School Children

In the poem The School Children, author Louise Gluck successfully creates for the reader an image of the children, their mothers and the position that they hold in their society. Her simple, yet descriptive words suggest a more in depth meaning that allows one to look past the simple story line of the poem and actually look into the entire situation the poem discusses. The story line simply tells of mothers who pick apples and send their children off to school with them, in hopes that they will receive an education in return. After completion of the poem, the reader comes to the realization that the apples are the center of the poem, around which the true meaning revolves. Through seemingly simple words, Gluck conveys a meaning to the reader throughout the poem that is camouflaged, so to speak, within the apples, as well as within her words.. Gluck’s use of simple diction and imagery deceptively display the powerful emotion, desperate hope, and passionate meaning held within the apples.

In the first stanza, Gluck describes the apples the mothers have collected as ?words of another language?. This tells the reader that the apples have another meaning, they are used for expression, possibly an expression of the mothers? thoughts, feelings, or intentions. This line alone allows the reader to question what the apples actually represent. By describing the apples in this way, Gluck tells the reader that the apples mean more than what the surface of the poem tells us, we can then infer that the poem itself also has an alternate meaning. Therefore, with this line, Gluck is not only beginning to use descriptive diction to imply meaning, but also to excite ...

... middle of paper ...

...of the poem by expressing to the

reader the seriousness and significance of the situation.

It is clear that true meaning behind the poem is contained within the apples. Recalling that Gluck described the apples of ?words of another language? in the first stanza of the poem, we now understand that Gluck herself used the apples as words of another language. By using the first description of the apples to excite the reader?s curiosity, by using the apples to keep the teacher?s happy, and by creating an image of the apples as ammunition, Gluck has successfully used diction and imagery to create an underlying meaning to the poem without ever actually stating it. In conclusion, Gluck has deceptively used the apples, coupled with her excellent use of diction and imagery, to display a far more in depth meaning in a unique, yet entertaining way.

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Ufos In The Crucible

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    UFOs invoke hysteria in society and cause people to believe other worldly beings are among us. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, talks about the hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. These two topics are similar because in both cases society tends to have seen things; in this case witches and UFOs/aliens, meanwhile other people didn't witness it nor have it happen to them yet, if not ever. Also, in both cases, there is a huge split between people who believe that UFOs/witches are real and people who don't believe they exist thinking that they are myths and hoaxes. The difference of these two topics is the fact that during the Witch Trials people were killed for being accused a witch meanwhile the mass hysteria surrounding UFOs

    Read More

  • The Government is Hiding Extraterrestrial Information from Roswell

    1658 Words  | 4 Pages

    Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) A flying or apparently flying object of an unknown nature, especially one suspected to have been sent by extraterrestrial beings 2. A flying saucer

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Poem Black Walnut Tree by Mary Oliver

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is a phrase that has been uttered numerous times to children by their parents. This aphorism has been used to not only apply to books but also people. In The Black Walnut Tree by Mary Oliver, the speaker faces a conflict between the literal and figurative meaning of a tree in her yard. In the beginning of the poem, the mother and daughter “debate” selling the tree to “pay off their mortgage.” But with a shift from literal language to figurative language comes a symbolic representation of the tree, one that represents family heritage and their ancestors’ hard work.

    Read More

  • Blake's View on Oppression of Children by Adults

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fact that they feel they can sit about the knee of their mother, in this stereotypical image of a happy family doesn’t suggest that the children in this poem are oppressed... ... middle of paper ... ... y has a negative view of the childish desire for play which clearly has an effect on the children. The fact that they the are whispering shows that they are afraid of the nurse, and that they cannot express their true thoughts and desires freely, which is why they whisper, and therefore shows that Blake feels that children are oppressed. I feel that the two poems from innocence which are ‘The Echoing Green,’ and ‘The Nurses Song,’ display Blake’s ideological view of country life which I referred to in my introduction, and show his desire for childhood to be enjoyed.

    Read More

  • Indian Boarding School

    1589 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is very likely that Louise Erdrich experienced some kind of racism or prejudice in her lifetime. Segregation laws were still in use while she was growing up in the fifties, and in the sixties, many of the same people still felt racist, with or without the laws. Boarding schools were not an exception to this fact either. School authorities probably did take advantage of the fact that boarding schools are away from home and not under the watchful eye of any parent. This poem demonstrates the truth of what it really felt and feels like to have lived through such bad treatment. It is disturbing to think that instead of just learning at school, Louise Erdrich, amongst other children, may have learned what it felt like to be hated. At such early ages, they taught these children that the way they were treated was how the world was supposed to be. It displays the painful scars embedded so deeply into a child, from a time that should have been the most nurturing part of his/her life.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    The discussion of children and school also gives well meaning of an organized and well-balanced village the people have put together, one the average parent would want their children raised in. “They tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands (p.445).” The thought of children playing also illustrates of a positive outlook for the rest of the story, a sense of happiness.

    Read More

  • The UFO Incident of Roswell, New Mexico

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    Around June 25th, 1947 a pilot, Ken Arnold had reported strange objects in the sky while flying near Mt. Rainer, Washington. He stated that they flew like "saucers being skipped over water." This was where the term "Flying Saucers" derived from. The Roswell UFO Incident all started on the evening of July 3, 1947, Dan Wilmot and his wife were sitting on their front porch when they saw the distinct shape of a saucer flying through the sky. A few days prior to this sighting, military radar in the area was tracking an Unidentified Flying Object for four days. On Independence Day the radar indicated that the object had gone down about 30-40 miles Northwest of Roswell. A few days after the actual sighting from the Wilmot's, W.W. Brazel, the Foreman of the J.B. Foster Ranch went to check on his sheep after some intense thunderstorms the night prior. He happened to discover a very large amount of debris of an unknown metallic substance scattered throughout the field. It was also stated that he stumbled across a shallow trench in the ground that stretched hundreds of feet. Brazel would gather some of this debris to show family and friends. A few days after he would contact sheriff Wilcox of Chaves County. Once Wilcox had the information he needed, he contacted the Roswell Army Air Force Base, where Major Jessie Marcel was briefed to look int...

    Read More

  • The Poet With His Face In His Hands By Mary Oliver Analysis

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose

    Read More

  • Blackberry Eating By Galway Kinnell Analysis

    462 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating,” assonance, alliteration, and refrain are used in reinforcing the poem’s meaning that just like the speaker’s interest for “ripest” blackberries as described throughout the poem, words are also rich and intense, thus one is eating straight from the tree of knowledge.

    Read More

  • Aliens: The Existence of Extra Terrestrial Life

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    . At the town of Roswell an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) crash landed in the quiet little town. Many Roswell residents testified that they saw a burning object plummet toward the ground before exploding upon impact. The Air Force's initial reaction to the incident was to tell the world that they did not know what it was. This shows me evidence that they had no “protocol” for this kind of occurrence, thus the Military leader stepped in and covered everything up. This incident caught the attention of citizens of the United States, local officials, and the media. It has especially gained interest in a variety of Special interest groups/ groups that specialize in researching and investigating events that involve UFO’s.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: I Clean Cages

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    I was able to do one room with Dr. Robins later in the afternoon. The appointment was on a Jack Russell named Cassie that came in for her last set of puppy vaccines. I ask the owner the usual questions, if she has been eating and drinking normally, any diarrhea or vomiting? She responds telling me no that she has been fine. After asking her all the appropriate questions I brought Cassie to the back for her weight, TPR, fecal, and administer a dose of Strongid.

    Read More

  • The Roswell Incident

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...what they thought was an alien ship, but alien bodies as well. Among these is Lt. Col. Albert L. Duran, who admitted seeing

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in The Flowers, by Alice Walker

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.

    Read More

  • The State of the World Illustrated in MacNeice's Poem, Prayer Before Birth

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem flows from stanza to stanza in a rapid incantation of all the possible dangers the child may face beginning with the creatures of fable and nightmare, and moving on rapidly to include the horrors created by humanity.

    Read More

  • In The Orchard

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    For any educator that is searching for a poem to arouse the interest of students enlisted in upper level literature classes, the poem “In the Orchard” by Muriel Stuart, written in the early twentieth century, conveys the ageless theme of unrequited love. The poem has all the elements of making students understand how far back the feeling of unrequited love has been around. We can understand these elements better through the rhetorical strategies.

    Read More

More about Powerful Emotion in Louise Gluck's The School Children

Open Document