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Relationship between literature and society
Relationship between literature and society
Relationship between literature and society
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Sociologists often employ intersectionality theory to describe and explain facets of human interactions. This particular methodology operates on the notion that sociologically defining characteristics, such as that of race, gender, and class, are not independent of one another but function simultaneously to determine our individual social experiences. This is evident in poetry as well. The combination of one poet’s work that expresses issues on class with another poet’s work that voices issues on race, and so forth, can be analyzed through a literary lens, and collectively embody the sociological intersectionality theory. Take Gwendolyn Brook’s “Kitchenette Building”, for example. Brook describes life within the lowest of socioeconomic classes …show more content…
The speaker of the poem is six years old in the waiting room of a dentist office, waiting for her aunt’s appointment to finish. Prompted by both the cover of a National Geographic magazine and a scream from her aunt, the speaker begins to question how she got there, who she is, and how she is different from her aunt and the women who came before her. She questions “why should I be my aunt / or me, or anyone?” (75-76), perhaps highlighting the notion that women were not as likely to be seen as an induvial at this time in history. Additionally, she questions, almost rhetorically so, if “those awful hanging breasts -- / held us all together / or made us all just one?” (81-83). This conveys the questions of what it means to be a woman: are we simply similar because of “awful hanging breasts” as the speaker of the poem questions, or are we held together by something else, and what is society’s perception on this? It is also interesting to note Bishop’s use of parenthesis around the line “I could read” (15). It may function as an aside for the reader to realize that the six year old girl can in fact read, but also might function as a wink to the misconstrued notion throughout history that women were less educated and didn’t
Life is not always easy, at some point, people struggle in their life. People who are in the lower class have to struggle for a job every day and people who are in upper class also have their own problems to deal with. These ideas are very clear in Mary Oliver’s “Singapore”, Philip Schultz’s “Greed” and Philip Levine “What Work Is”. In "Singapore" a woman is likely lower class because she works at the airport and her job is to clean the bathroom. In both “Greed” and “What Work Is”, the speakers make the same conclusion about the struggle in the lower class. “Greed” furthermore discusses how Hispanics get a job first before whites and blacks because they take lower wages. All three poems deal with class in term of the society. The shared idea
In ?Everyday Use?, Alice Walker chooses to develop the idea of poverty by focusing exclusively on the environment in which her protagonists live. Setting attributes, such as the ones used to describe the house in which the protagonists reside, enables us to better understand the theme. In fact, the dwelling does not even have any real windows. Instead, it has holes cut in the sides, like the portholes of a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutters up on the outside. Then, Walker proceeds with inside description of the house as she points out that the protagonists use benches for their table instead of chairs because they cannot financially afford any. Further, the author supports the theme by providing us with some physical description of specific objects. The use of quilts that ?Grandma Dee? sewed from the scraps of her dress and the churn that Uncle Henry whittled from the wood is not derived from the protagonists? intention to preserve ?family values? but rather from a necessity to ?survive?.
Who she is as a poet, feminist or not, her experiences where what she wrote about and how she connected with the world and how she got away from her life as the, “middle aged witch,” or house wife. With the Double “I”, the tone and repeation, and who she was as a person, house wife, and poet. The very end of each stanza in “Her Kind”, “I have been her kind,”(7) isn’t just there. This is where she can connect with both her madness as the witch, adultress, and a housewife, with the “kind” she real was, a woman who writes.
It is a way to crucially engage oneself in setting the stage for new interventions and connections. She also emphasized that she personally viewed poetry as the embodiment of one’s personal experiences, and she challenged what the white, European males have imbued in society, as she declared, “I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean — in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.”
Have you ever wondered how your ethnicity can impact the way you interact with people? What about the conversation you might have with people? Do you have a voice in our society that allows you to speak for yourself or a group of people? In the poem “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” by Diane Burns, the author focused on showing the importance poetic devices have through allusions, repetition, and imagery. Through poetic devices, author of “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” shows how stereotypes from societies and her ethnicity affects her life. Diane Burns uses three poetic devices to communicate her tone throughout the poem.
The poem starts with the line, “This girlchild was born as usual,” which suggests that as soon as a girl is born, society already expects her to learn the role she will soon play in when she hits puberty (1). Thus, showing why we are given dolls as little girls to illustrate how we should act and appear according to society. After we learn all the roles we will soon take part in, “the magic of puberty,” hits and girls immediately begin applying the ideals to their own lives (5). As if this attempt to conform is not enough we have other people telling us we are not to perfect. “You have a great big nose and fat legs,” says a classmate to the girl (6). This type of pressure can slowly but surely destroy even the little confidence women do have in themselves.
This essay will be unpacking and analysing the different elements that create my own intersectionality in my life. This essay will be discussing how class, gender/sex and race have influenced who I am and the experiences I have had throughout my life, and how various structures impact these experiences, with reference to the Crenshaw and Dill and Zambara articles, I will connect their thoughts and ideas to the intersectionality of my own life.
‘The woman’ of the poem has no specific identity and this helps us even further see the situation in which the woman is experiencing, the lost of one’s identity. Questions start to be raised and we wonder if Harwood uses this character to portray her views of every woman which goes into the stage of motherhood, where much sacrifice is needed one being the identity that was present in society prior to children.
Women felt like they were being confined almost like in a jail, since they were stuck in the house, hidden away from society. Just like in the “Poor Singing Dame” the poor woman got thrown in jail where she died just because she would not stop expressing her feeling of happiness even though she was not wealthy. “Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial Law 's despite” (Barbauld, Lines 1-3) and “He sent his bold yeomen with threats to prevent her, And still would she carol her sweet roundelay; At last, an old steward relentless he sent her- Who bore her, all trembling, to prison away!”(Robinson, Lines 36-40). This shows that women started to feel like they needed to tell men to step aside from their role as rulers and leaders in society, and instead accept that women can rule just as good as any
Anne Bradstreet is often praised as being one of the first feminist voices in colonial America which, perhaps, is misleading. Her poetry adhered to the standard themes and styles of her male contemporaries, glorifying male-dominated society and never questioning the authority of the men that controlled her life both personally and spiritually. She was content to be the property of her father, husband, and Puritan society as a whole. However, because she worked within the confines of the Puritan era's gender roles and literary techniques, Anne Bradstreet was able to shed light on the oft overlooked existence of women within the society.
She wrote this novel to inform readers that there are differences and similarities between the genders of male and female and how each of their minds work. She says, In other words, when we are not thinking of ourselves as “male” or “female” our judgements are the same. This quote directly shows us that she is trying to tell us what life is like with each gender.
Feminism today remains prominent because even while women’s rights are very strong, women are still fighting for equality every day. In the time of Anne Bradstreet, women had few rights and they were seen as inferior to men. Anne lived among the puritans whom ruled her everyday life. Although it was against the puritan code for women to receive an education, Bradstreet’s father, Thomas Dudley, loved his daughter dearly and made sure that she was well educated which shows in her works. Anne Bradstreet’s literature became well known only because her family published her works under a male name. This was done because writing poetry was a serious offense to the puritans since poetry was considered creative and the only creating that was done was by God. In the works of Anne Bradstreet, she conveys a feminist attitude, and could very well be one of the first American Feminists.
Dorothy was a beautiful poem dedicated to the mother of Anne Bradstreet in 1650. Anne Bradstreet shared the positive characteristics of her mother with her her readers. She opened her poem with a warm description of her mother, “A loving mother and obedient wife” (Belasco p.155). Anne Bradstreet uses diction to describe her mother in line five, “whom oft she fed and clothes with her store” (Belasco p.155). Bradstreet wrote about an ideal Puritan woman, a good religious wife and mother. Around this time, this is the characteristics Puritan women should have. She appeals to her reader’s emotion by describing her mother. When reading, most individuals would be able to relate to their own mother. Even though she was not able to speak out during this time, her style of writing portrays how her mother inspires
She then talks about great men such as Mussolini, Pope, Napoleon and Goethe and how they viewed women. After discovering their opinions, the narrator is bewildered at her findings. These men are praised for their philosophies and wisdom, yet they all view women as being inferior. The narrator is pointing towards the fact that these men in reality are quite ignorant. During th...
so by the end of chapter one she realizes that maybe the effect of society and tradition long before her time had a important impact on the way writers once thought and how her life might of been different if women had more freedom back when they could not have any legal property rights. which then imposes on her that women do not have any accomplishments to compare to that would inspire the next generation to come. she arrives at this conclusion by thinking about the luncheon she was at earlier and comparing it to the one at the all women 's college. how similar and different the two were and why they had these similarities and differences.