Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. She is known as a poet, novelist, story writer, essayist, and environmental activist. Her books have received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe, and her native Canada, and she has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General’s Award, twice. Atwood’s critical popularity is matched by her popularity with readers; her books are regularly bestsellers. Some of Atwood’s award winning poetry, short stories and novels includes The Circle Game (1966), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Snowbird (1981), The Blind Assassin (2000), The Tent (2006) and more. Suffering is common for the female characters in Atwood’s poems, although they are never passive victims. In the clever and humorous poem “Siren Song”, Margaret Atwood uses the speaker, allusion, and repetition to convey the true meaning of the poem, which is that women have the ability to manipulate and flatter a man to get whatever they desire.
The speaker of the poem is one of the three Sirens. Atwood depicts the siren as this beautiful, irresistible woman who is not content with continuously singing the same “song”. The Siren creates false vulnerability in order to make it seem as if she is in distress. The purpose of this is to lure men and make them believe that they are different and that only they can save her. “Help me! / Only you, only you can, / you are unique” (22-24). The siren is used as a symbol to show one of the typical stereotypes of woman in today’s society. The stereotype shown is that woman tend to make themselves seem helpless by playing the role of the “damsel in distress”. In describing her curse, the siren wails about her “pic...
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...e speaker’s “true” feelings about her existence, that it is merely an imprisonment, due to unwanted beauty. Yet, the speaker then states “…come closer…,” and suddenly the reader knows that her lament was only an extension of her deadly craft. The last line: “It is a boring song but it works every time,” is satirical in nature and is somewhat hilarious. It shows the speaker shrugging off her actions, a distinct comment made by Atwood about the negative opinion of women.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. “Siren Song” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2012. 467. Print
"Siren Song by Margaret Atwood." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
Website
"Margaret Atwood: The Poetry Foundation." Poetryfoundation.org. The Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.
Furthermore,the Sirens are portrayed as underprivileged. In the siren song it declares,”This song is a cry
Lee, Edward Bok El Santo Americano. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing 4th Ed.
The readers are apt to feel confused in the contrasting ways the woman in this poem has been depicted. The lady described in the poem leads to contrasting lives during the day and night. She is a normal girl in her Cadillac in the day while in her pink Mustang she is a prostitute driving on highways in the night. In the poem the imagery of body recurs frequently as “moving in the dust” and “every time she is touched”. The reference to woman’s body could possibly be the metaphor for the derogatory ways women’s labor, especially the physical labor is represented. The contrast between day and night possibly highlights the two contrasting ways the women are represented in society.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
In the first two lines, an aural image is employed to indicate a never-ending anger in the girl's father. Dawe uses onomatopoeia to create a disturbing and upsetting description of his enraged "buzz-saw whine." An annoying, upsetting sound, it gives the impression of lasting ceaselessly. His anger "rose /murderously in his throat." Because "murderously" begins on a new line, a greater emphasis is placed on it and its evil and destructive connotations. An image of a growling lion stalking its prey is evoked in the reader, as it threateningly snarls from its throat. The girl is terrified as it preys on her persistently "throughout the night." Furthermore, because there is no punctuation, these few lines are without a rest, and when reading out aloud, they cause breathlessness. This suggests that the father's "righteous" fury is ceaseless and suffocating the girl.
Margaret Atwood wrote and published “Siren Song” in 1974. The poem vividly describes a siren singing a song about a different song, which is irresistible to men. The siren narrating the poem cunningly pretends to sing a harmless song that is actually the irresistible song that she sings about (Nada). The siren wishes to tempt the reader into coming closer to her and feigns helplessness and distress in order to lure the reader onto her island. The siren also compliments the reader in order to coerce them to come closer. Despite the siren’s clearly dark intentions the poem has a somewhat lighter undertone creat...
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
Kennedy, X J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Sixth ed. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1995. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Backpack literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology: American Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Print.
Neuman, Shirley. "'Just A Backlash': Margaret Atwood, Feminism, And "The Handmaid's Tale.." University Of Toronto Quarterly 75.3 (2006): 857-868. Academic Search Elite. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
...sed society with religious overtones throughout the poem, as though religion and God are placing pressure on her. The is a very deep poem that can be taken in may ways depending on the readers stature yet one thing is certain; this poem speaks on Woman’s Identity.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.