Subject- "Sorting Laundry" is about a wife reminiscing about the times that she has had with her husband while she is folding and sorting their laundry.
Paraphrase- While folding the laundry, I often think of folding you into my life. Our king-sized sheets are as big as a table cloth for giants, and our pillowcases still possess our dreams from nights past, even though they’ve been washed time and time again. Our towels are orange and green with pink and purple flowers. We only used them for when we went to the beach and we never bleached them. There are so many shirts, skirts, and pants that are used week after week. So many wrinkles to be ironed out or to be ignored because they are in style. A great number of unrolled socks, which
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were then paired two by two as the animals in the ark were. The clothing that had shrunk still holds enough sentimental value that giving it to Goodwill would be a sin. The pockets of our shorts and pants were always full of surprises, such as old matches, paper dollars, the legal tender for both public and private debts, which are all in one piece even though they have been washed. Within the mayhem that is the whirlpool of water and clothes, there are some diamonds in the rough, such as a shiny dime, a broken gold necklace that you had brought home from Kuwait, and an awkwardly made shirt that was left off by a former lover of yours. Now the thought of that former lover makes me think about you leaving me; about me having to fold my clothes and my clothes alone. All of the conclaves of my apparel would turn upon themselves, and not even ten loads of unsorted laundry could fill the empty space left on the bed. Occasion- The circumstances of "Sorting Laundry" are more important as what the speaker is saying is more significant than how the poem is structured. While the structure may have some importance, what the speaker says helps the audience gain more knowledge about what the poem is truly about. Title: The significance of this poem's title is that the speaker has these memories when she is folding or sorting the laundry. Theme: The speaker is very fond of the memories that she is has when she is folding her and her husband's laundry. Speaker: The speaker of “Sorting Laundry” is a wife and she is speaking in first person point of view. Strategies: Within "Sorting Laundry," I can see the use of a simile, personification, and imagery. Out of all of these, I believe imagery would be the one I would be most likely prefer to analyze. Thematic Statement: In her love poem "Sorting Laundry," Elisavietta Ritchie demonstrates that thoughts of love for one's significant other can be thought of even when doing a menial or boring task, such as folding laundry.
Evidence: The speaker's love and devotion for her husband are demonstrated when she brings up the odd shirt left behind by an old lover and states "If you were to leave me, if I were to fold only my own clothes, the convexes and concaves of my blouses, panties, stockings, bras turned upon themselves, a mountain of unsorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed." What is essentially stated here is that it is not the laundry that makes her happy, rather the fact that she has her husband’s love and is able to be reminded of it when doing the laundry.
Analysis: Once again, since the speaker is essentially stating that she is only happy while doing the laundry because she is able to look back at the happy times she has with her husband, she is able to think of love while doing a very boring and menial task.
Response: While performing menial tasks, there is no direct thought that human minds go to, meaning that the possibilities are endless. The fact that the speaker of "Sorting Laundry" is able to reminisce about fond times she has had with her husband while sorting their laundry fascinating and quite
heartwarming.
It gave the idea, and a clear understanding of what its discussing.It led me to imagine a dilapidated room,with elderly people eating, and using mismatched copper utensils. Their body physically there, but easily seen in their eyes , their minds are somewhere far away. I could see and feel the pearls when I read the line, “ Full of beads and receipts.” I could see them eating the beans,and imagine their back room filled with objects containing their memories. “ This old yellow pair,” and Rememberings with twinklings and tinges,” inspired the imagery of an old couple sitting together and reminiscing about their
... attempts to change the way Mama and Maggie perceive tradition by using the quilts as a wall display. Mama refuses to allow it, Dee was offered the quilts when she was in college and didn’t want them at that time. Mama gives the quilts to Maggie as her wedding gift to be used every day as they were intended, knowing how much Maggie appreciates them. I agree with Mama and Maggie for keeping family memories and objects in daily use. It is important to maintain your family history in your everyday life to preserve those special memories.
She kept washing her father clothes time to time, and she still remember how he used to wear them. Washing her father’s shirt was a daily habit that she did for her father. It also shows that she is very care about him. Then she states, “From among all bodies in the world, / animal, human. / Only one exuded that sweat. / I breath it in/ for the last time.”, this part shows the solid relationship that only has with her special father. From all around the world the “smells of sweat” on her father’s shirt was the only one that was so special to her. It clearly reflects the uniqueness of her father and their binding relationship. She tries to breath the “smells of sweat” from the “shirt” for the time because she will never have change to smell that sweat again. this is the only time that she could smell and memory about her father. The action also indicates deeply the daughter’s love for her
Since the story uses a certain object, the Jacket, as the meaning of several issues, it primarily focuses on the narrator's poverty-stricken family. First of all, an example of the poverty is demonstrated when the narrator complains that the jacket "was so ugly and big that I knew I'd have to wear it a long time"(paragraph 3). It is clear that his lack of money was a problem in which he would have to keep the jacket because he could not afford a new one. The narrator then feels embarrassed and upset by the jacket by stating "I blame my mother for her bad taste and cheap ways"(paragraph 10). By mentioning his mother's "cheap" ways he is conveying that he is aggravated because of his mothers option to choose bad and ugly clothes in ord...
In the second half of the poem, a new facet of the speaker's attitude is displayed. In line 17, she wants to improve the ugliness of her "child" by giving him new clothes; however, she is too poor to do so, having "nought save homespun cloth" with which to dress her child. In the final stanza, the speaker reveals poverty as her motive for allowing her book to be sent to a publisher (sending her "child" out into the world) in the first place. This makes her attitude seem to contradict her actions.
The poem “In the kitchen” written by Penelope Shuttle shares with readers how difficult it may be for humans to mourn the loss of a loved one. The poem starts off with the speaker (Penelope) giving a few things around her kitchen human qualities, also known as personification. The author maintains a sad yet mellow tone throughout the entire poem. Almost like the author didn’t want anyone to feel the pain she was feeling, she simply wanted a way to express her feeling regarding the loss of her husband.
Mama is hoping that Maggie will use the quilt as a practical everyday item. She sees the quilts for their functional use that they were made to use in everyday life. Meanwhile, Dee finds this absurd. She thinks they are too valuable and priceless to be using as everyday necessities. Instead she will hang them. These two ideas of how to use the quilts are in complete contrast of one another. Mama finds them practical, Dee finds them fashiona...
...rn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece . . . that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War" (Walker, 65). These quilts, which have become an heirloom, not only represent the family, but are an integral part of the family. A concept in which Dee, could just not possibly understand. Mama then grasps the quilts out of Dee’s clutch and places them on Maggie’s lap, for Maggie knows that the quilts are personal and emotional rather than by any means financial (p.66). These quilts are for “Everyday Use.”
The woman suffers from depression and is prescribed a rest cure. John believes that she is not sick, but she is just fatigued and needs some rest. John took her to a summer home and placed her in a room upstairs. He then instructs her to rest and not to do any writing. John's views as a doctor forbid any type of activity, even writing, for he feels it will only worsen her already fragile condition. The woman believes she would feel better if she could write: "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (470). The woman did not like the room that John put her in: "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it" (470).
Gatsby tries to make Daisy love him through his money and excessive spending on non essential, things. When he and Daisy first reconnect their relationship, he brings her over to his house to show off the clothes in his closet: “He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher — shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. (Fitzgerald 92).” Gatsby is throwing his shirts everywhere to show that he has a tremendous amount of money ...
exactly what's going on and begins to resent Wangero even more. The quilts themselves are symbols in the story, interpreted in different ways, by the narrator, the author, the reader, and Wangero. Again, Walker uses the narrator's simplicity to her advantage. While Wangero sees the quilts as a symbol of her heritage, the narrator. sees them only literally, as blankets to be used, not saved for. cultural posterity.
In doing this she is listing off things that the Daughter should be acting out upon. “Don 't squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know” (Kincaid 68). The mother is demonstrating how the daughter should act in the presences of boys and explain she is not one. As a girl she must act proper and not play the ways boys do. Boys are aggressive and dirty as seen by society; a girl like she is supposed to be kind and proper. Then the mother explains in one section on how to do housework and chores; a woman’s job. “This is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so they don’t have a crease” (Kincaid 67). Kincaid writes that the mother is instructing the daughter on how to do her father’s clothing. This shows that the father; a man does not iron his own clothes but that it is a woman’s job. This can connect to Judy Brady’s work “I Want a Wife” which is about a woman who is listing all the things women do for their husband. Like Kincaid she brings up the same chores of housework and tending to clothing. “A wife who will pick up after me. I want a wife who will keep my clothes clean, ironed, mended,
... her with joy this sense is only experienced while being confined in her bedroom. And as soon as she leaves her room, the freedom she’d just begun to understand is now taken away from her in an instant. She actually died of sorrow and great disappointment of her husband’s return as he waited at the front door.
The poem "Girl" by author Jamaica Kincaid shows love and family togetherness by creating microcosmic images of the way mothers raise their children in order to survive. Upon closer examination, the reader sees that the text is a string of images in Westerner Caribbean family practices.
Quilts symbolize a family’s heritage. Maggie adheres the tradition by learning how to quilt from her grandmother and by sewing her own quilts. Maggie also puts her grandmother’s quilts into everyday use. Therefore, when Dee covets the family’s heirloom, wanting to take her grandmother’s hand-stitched quilts away for decoration, Mama gives the quilts to Maggie. Mama believes that Maggie will continually engage with and build upon the family’s history by using the quilts daily rather than distance herself from