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Essays on mother courage
Essays on mother courage
Essays on mother courage
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In the poem The Courage That My Mother Had by Edna St. Vincent Millay, the speaker explains the admiration he/she had for his/her mother’s courage. The author integrates strong imagery in order to fully explain the message that the speaker is trying to get across to the reader. In the first stanza, the speaker describes his/her’s mother as a “Rock from [the] New England quarried,” and later uses the same idea of a rock to describe the courage his/her mother possesses. What can be understood from the repetition of the image of a rock, is that the mother figure is as strong as the courage inside her. Another way we can see that the speaker truly loves their mother’s courage, is the fact that although he/she received a golden brooch that had previously
Joan Murray wrote the essay “Someone’s Mother,” she describes a time when her intuition encouraged her to assist a hitchhiker.
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
...he shows us her character, not by how she gives herself respect, but by the continued respect that she gives to others: even her tormenters. Her secret shame was kept inside, and it was an impossible burden to bear. She was brave.
When writing poetry, there are many descriptive methods an author may employ to communicate an idea or concept to their audience. One of the more effective methods that authors often use is linking devices, such as metaphors and similes. Throughout “The Elder Sister,” Olds uses linking devices effectively in many ways. An effective image Olds uses is that of “the pressure of Mother’s muscles on her brain,” (5) providing a link to the mother’s expectations for her children. She also uses images of water and fluidity to demonstrate the natural progression of a child into womanhood. Another image is that of the speaker’s elder sister as a metaphorical shield, the one who protected her from the mental strain inflicted by their mother.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "The mother" tells us about a mother who had many abortions. The speaker is addressing her children in explain to them why child could not have them. The internal conflict reveals that she regret killing her children or "small pups with a little or with no hair." The speaker tells what she will never do with her children that she killed. She will "never neglect", "beat", "silence", "buy with sweet", " scuffle off ghosts that come", "controlling your luscious sigh/ return for a snack", never hear them "giggled", "planned", and "cried." She also wishes she could see their "marriage", "aches", "stilted", play "games", and "deaths." She regrets even not giving them a "name" and "breaths." The mother knows that her decision will not let her forget by using the phrase "Abortions will not let you forget." The external conflict lets us know that she did not acted alone in her decision making. She mentions "believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate" and "whine that the crime was other than mine." The speaker is saying that her decision to have an abortion was not final yet but someone forced her into having it anyway. The external conflict is that she cannot forget the pain on the day of having the abortions. She mentions the "contracted" and "eased" that she felt having abortions.
The poem, Wisdom of Shelly, written by George Elliot Clarke, is describing an abusive and unsafe relationship from a child point of view. From my understanding it think the poem is describing how the father or husband was not in the mother and child’s life for a long period of time but tries to convince the family he changed with a couple of roses. In the picture, I included a field of roses, which I took from the line “bristlin’ with roses.” I was trying to capture the sense of the child’s point of view that even if you bring a million roses, it will not change you as a person. I added the rocks in the water because it brought down the mood of the picture to make it feel sadder because of the misty and dark colours. Next, I added the eye at
Anne Sexton utilizes imagery in her poem “Courage” to convey that courage grows in the significant moments of one’s life. The author applies imagery by describing “The child’s first step…The first time you rode a bike…the first spanking when your heart went on a journey all alone.” (Lines 2, 4, and 6-7). The vivid images that come to mind when reading these excerpts show the first moments that slowly begins to build one’s courage. These moments compile over time to aid a person when another symbolic or momentous occasion arises. Also, the author further utilizes imagery to strengthen the theme by describing the end of life “when death opens the back door… and [you] stride out.” (Lines 45 and 47). By creating the image of one of the most pivotal
The poem “Heritage”, written by Linda Hogan, tells the story of each trait she inherited and the lessons she learned from key members of her family. When analyzing poetry, there are many literary elements that the reader can observe. These elements can range from diction, syntax and rhyme schemes. In Hogan’s poem, there are three literary elements that stand out the most. These are figurative language, tone and diction. By using figurative language, Hogan can better communicate her ideas towards the audience. The use of tone allows the reader to understand the character’s feelings. Lastly, her choice of diction determines how the reader views the story. The author’s use of these three elements allows the audience to connect to the poem because
The relationship between a mother and a father, even when the couple had at least some certainty in their ability to stay together, was tenuous. For many, committing to one relationship after slavery required sifting through the baggage of their past lives. Many mothers had children from men long passed out of their lives, like Sethe, and had to look for a new man to support the family and act as a father figure. This was painful -- and risky. Sethe remarks on men that “They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely that was, they studied your scars and tribulations, after which they did what he had done: ran her children out and tore up the house” (Morrison 13). For Sethe, this complaint
The great amount of respect and strong feeling of pleasure and wonder a child has for their mother's courage is very obvious throughout Edna St. Vincent Millay's, "The Courage That My Mother Had." (at the same time), the poem brings across feelings of betrayal. Millay's poem, through strong associations with (state where all things are equal) as strong words, such as "rock" and "(very hard rock)," guesses (based on what's known) the general theme of the poem and the amount of (title-related) courage the poem's mother possessed. The (person telling the story) uses (more than two, but not a lot of) different types of figurative language to create thoughts and feelings of love, hate, fear, etc. for the reader. Millay's use of (physical things
This poem and picture compare to in Langston Hughes poem “Mother to Son” because his mom tries to give hi everything she can. Even though she does not have much, she will try and give him the world. Also, in the picture the mother does not have anything but a tangled up mess in her hands, but she still gives it to her baby boy. The tangled up mess in the picture would be considered as her world. The poem and picture both address how the mothers’ worlds are made up rips, tears, and are full of struggles. “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”, as said by the mother in the poem. “And places with no carpet on the floor”. Everything the mother is saying in the poem (Mother to Son) has been shown in the picture by WAK. They still thrive no matter
The way a child is raised serves as a precedent in determining who the child will become once he or she is an adult. There are many children who have overcome unfortunate situations in their childhood and have become successful individuals despite the negative factors they have faced. Then again, there have also been many situations where a child is raised in an upscale community surrounded by successful people and have grown to make negative decisions leading to ineffectiveness in life.
The mother in the poem represents the many generations of African Americans for whom opportunity was scarce for, have endured pain, who's had a troubled past and was given every reason to give up. Life for Africans “ain’t been no crystal stair” since the beginning of time. Since Slavery to present time they have just been pushing through in hope of upward mobility. Langston Hughes successfully acknowledges the mindset of those who have been through hardships and have found it easier to give up, yet still remained strong. “Mother to Son” teaches a valuable lesson for anyone who encounters struggles, reminding them to never give up. On the road of life, you will encounter trials and tribulations, however he teaches us that we can and will overcome such things for pain is temporary and there is a way out.
In a series of illustrations, The Stone Angel is a story of a 90 year old woman, Hagar Shipley, struggling with life. Hagar Shipley is the most cynical old woman in human history, always torturing those around her. This woman is always pessimistic and looks on the bad sides of things and later realizes how being so gloomy-eyed she has withered into nothingness. By treating everyone so badly she has never made any friends and family does not want to be with her except for her sons Marvin and John who are biologically programmed to love her. In this passage from The Stone Angel, the theme of pride and the author’s symbolism help to develop the characters.