Nettles and Catrin present parent-child relationships in different ways, possibly as a result of the authors’ personal experiences. The father in Nettles tries to protect his son from any pain and danger the world throws at him. In Catrin, there is too a parent-child relationship between the mother and daughter, but at times it seems strained and fraught with conflict.
Firstly, Vernon Scannell uses imagery to personify the natural world as harsh, as if it is at war with the boy and ultimately his father. By the second line, an image of weapons is created when Scannell refers to the nettles as “green spears”. This personifies the barbs of the nettles and portrays them to be an actual army with “spears”. Moreover, Scannell describes the nettles
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as a “regiment of spite”, further making the nettles seem hostile. This is done by the use of the word “spite”, which literally means to hurt. This effect is augmented by the word “regiment”, a permanent unit of an army, thus, it seems that hurting the boy is the primary concern for the nettles. In my opinion, the parent-child relationships in the story can then be clearly seen when the father brutally takes revenge for his son. When the father “slashed in fury”, the anger he feels can be clearly seen from the word “slashed”, it suggests he is taking big swings at the nettles, to release his fury, instead of just pulling them up. The father so passionately defending his child through his anger shows the close bond that he has with his child and what he will do to defend him. Secondly, Gillian Clarke too uses imagery in Catrin, but to show the strain and conflict that sometimes appears between the mother and the daughter. The mother and daughter “fought over” the cord. This imagery suggests a conflict between the two characters through the use of the word “fought” which explicitly implies of a conflict. The difference between the two characters seems significant as they engage in conflict at the first possible moment. This imagery, however, could just be highlighting the brutality of birth. The words “defiant glare” suggest that the parent-child relationship is strained. It shows that even when Catrin is older, she still challenges her mother when she does not get what she wants. The use of the word “defiant” suggests Catrin sees herself as having power over her mother but is avoiding a direct conflict. This suggests that there is some love in the parental-child relationship in Catrin, but it is dominated by strain and conflict. A different kind of image can be created by the phrase “people and cars taking turn at the traffic lights”. This imagery suggests multiple ideas about the parent-child relationship in nettles. It could suggest that the mother and daughter are taking different paths in life, turning away from each other at the traffic lights, with the mother trying to prevent it from happening. It could finally represent the frustration in the relationship between the child and mother, just like having to stop at some traffic lights. Additionally, the structure that Scannell uses in Nettles also portrays the parent-child relationships in the poem. It is written in alternating iambic pentameters, each line being 10 or 11 syllables Using iambic pentameters creates the effect of a beating heart when the reader reads or speaks the poem. The alternating 10 and 11 syllables can also show the dedication of the father in the relationship and how he has shaped his life around the child. Similarly, the rhyming scheme alternates, using the pattern A, B, A, B showing how the father is caring for himself, but then looking after his child. The poem itself is written in a single stanza, showing the shortness of life. The difficulty of dedicating such a poem to creating the rhyming pattern and iambic pentameters could mirror the dedication and love of the father in the parent-child relationship. Likewise, Clarke portrays the parent-child relationships in Catrin through the structure of the poem.
The poem consists of two stanzas, the first in the past, and the second in the present. But the images of conflict in the poem continue, showing how the parent-child relationship hardly changes over time and is still ridden with strain. An uneasy feeling is developed in the poem through the use of enjambment, creating the lack of any rhythm. The absence of a rhyme scheme further adds to this. This could have been done by the Clarke to mirror the uneasy conflict present in the poem between the mother and daughter. However, it could also represent the natural and sporadic emotions of the mother or even a personal experience of the author. The poem is also named “Catrin” after the daughter, but the name is never used in the stanzas. This may have been done to show that the mother and daughter are so close that they do not address each other by their …show more content…
names. Furthermore, the themes and deeper messages of Nettles suggest alternative aspects of the parent-child relationship, that cannot be seen through the use of imagery and structure. One of these themes is inescapable dangers of the word such as Nettles. This can be clearly seen in the poem when the father cuts down and then burns the nettles, but they grew back and the son now feels “sharp wounds again”. The parent here realises that he cannot protect his son from the hurtful situations that life will throw at him. The martial imagery may have been used in the poem to show how the father sees the incidents as important. But the imagery may have also been used to show the futility of war against the nettles. This would have likely been the view of the author as he deserted from the army during war twice, possibly as he saw it as futile. Another theme is the power of nature over humans. Nature in the story is portrayed by the nettles and the “busy sun and rain”. No matter what the father does, such as slashing burning the nettles, nature will always win. This makes the father’s attempt at protecting the child seem hopeless. Finally, the themes conveyed in Catrin reveal the complexities of the parent-child relationship within the poem.
One theme is two-way relationships that both pull parents and children together whilst pulling them apart. This is illustrated when the mother describes an “old rope, Tightening about my life”. This represents a submerged rope (representing the invisible forces of attraction between the mother and daughter) attached to a boat in a harbour (representing the mother and daughter). It may seem like the boat and harbour are free, but when they try to go their own ways, the rope tightens and pulls them back together. This is not the only theme that reveals the complexities of the parent-child relationship. Another theme is how parents can be torn when their children grow up. The mother seems to be happy that her child is growing up and becoming independent but also seems to resist it. This can be seen from the description of traffic lights. The cars “taking turn” could represent the mother and daughter going on their own paths. The traffic lights alternate between letting and not letting cars through. The lights mirror the sporadic emotions of the mother. It is like they can’t decide to let the girl go on her own independent way in
life. To conclude, both poems present parent-child relationships in complex, but different ways. Vernon Scannell portrays the relationship in Nettles as being close, with the father trying to protect his son from all the danger of the world, but develops so that the father realises that he cannot protect his son forever. Gillian Clarke presents an even more complex relationship. The mother and daughter seem to be both in conflict yet drawn together at the same time. In my view, there are some similarities between the poems as well. For example, both acknowledge the love between parents and children, even if to varying amounts.
The mother and daughter have a very distant relationship because her mother is ill and not capable to be there, the mother wishes she could be but is physically unable. “I only remember my mother walking one time. She walked me to kindergarten." (Fein). The daughter’s point of view of her mother changes by having a child herself. In the short story the son has a mother that is willing to be helpful and there for him, but he does not take the time to care and listen to his mother, and the mother begins to get fed up with how Alfred behaves. "Be quiet don't speak to me, you've disgraced me again and again."(Callaghan). Another difference is the maturity level the son is a teenager that left school and is a trouble maker. The daughter is an adult who is reflecting back on her childhood by the feeling of being cheated in life, but sees in the end her mother was the one who was truly being cheated. “I may never understand why some of us are cheated in life. I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was.” (Fein). The differences in the essay and short story show how the children do not realize how much their mothers care and love
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
It let the readers see it from a loving brother’s perspective, to see his thoughts, loss, and questions. The poem by Michael Lassell does not have a rhyme scheme. There were a lot of imagery and word choices that stood out. When he said “looks like
She’s considering having an abortion. On the other hand the daughter wants to get merry to her African boyfriend he wants her to move with him to Africa. Momma is very excited to own her first home and they also refuse to take the money from Mr. Linden, they are tired of living in the apartment, momma thinks a house is the best investment. The son is going through some extremely hard times after losing all that money trying to open a liquor store. In the story the son faces more problems the son has the most problems for example he’s in charged of the house after his father die he took over all the responsibility he’s father had. During the 1950s after the father die the son usually took over the family and all its
The theme of this story is “speak”. To me that means that if something bad happens to you that you need to talk to somebody about it and not just bottle it up inside. When people don't know what happened they assume things and they'll take actions that may hurt you more because they don't know the truth because you never spoke about your problem.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
The poem does not exhibit a rhyme scheme, nor does it display any odd stanza breaks. The obvious organization of the poem allowed the poet to add a rather bonding experience for the reader. Although it seems the speaker adds no effort in creating the stanza structure or entertaining elements of the poem, as it is monotonous to add rhythm to a poem consisted of sincere writing, the poet strategically placed each stanza. The speaker begins the poem with introducing her past encounters with the quilt, she describes in her first stanza,“My sister and I were in love/ with
One theme is learning to deal with death. People deal with death in many different ways, and it shows in this story. Anse took Addie's death rather well, which shows that they didn't have a very loving marriage. Most of the children, however, mourned the death of their mother greatly. Some children weren't as sad as others because their mother had been sick for a while and they knew she was going to die. One son was always crying because he and his mother were very close. But one child, Dewey, became pregnant about a month before her mother died. While everyone was trying to set up the funeral for Addie, Dewey was stopping at every store possible to try and find a drug that would abort her baby. She had so much anxiety worrying about this baby that she didn't have time to mourn the death of her
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
O’Connell uses an array of literary devices throughout her poem. For example, The father’s “anger bumped into the furniture”, is a personification of the father’s emotions. While, in the next stanza, there is a line with an “m” as well as an “s” alliteration with the line of “my membranes silent, my eyes closed”. And in the last stanza O’Connell uses in inside rhyme of the words “complain” and
The two poems which I am studying are Nettles by Vernon Scannell and Sister Maude by Christina Rossetti . Both of the poems are based on relationship. Nettles is the relationship between father and son . The father who is trying to protect his son from hurting himself in a nettle bed . In Sister Maude the relationship is between sisters and how betrayal can rip a family apart.
They are a ‘regiment of spite’, and are described using the metaphor ‘spears’. Within the first three lines of the poem, the nettles are presented as aggressive and a violent group of soldiers to reflect the speaker’s need to protect his child. The speaker is shown as taking revenge against the nettles, the writer again personifies them, describing them as a ‘fierce parade’ as if they were soldiers standing to attention, cut down by his scythe. The nettles are given a ‘funeral pyre’. Additionally, Scannell uses alliteration when he says ‘white blisters beaded on his tender skin’. The alliteration using the ‘b’ sounds suggests that the swelling, painful injuries, and the child’s skin is ‘tender’, a strong contrast to the language used to describe the nettles. Similarly, Armitage uses strong language to describe injuries of the husband in ‘The Manhunt’. Many of the first lines of the couplets have prominent verbs, reflecting the activities of the wife as she conducts her ‘search’. Words and phrases like ‘handle and hold’, ‘explore’, and ‘mind and attend’ are all referencing to the carful treatment of her husband’s injured body; this suggests her patient care for her husband’s mental state. The speaker uses metaphors to refer to parts of the husband’s body. Armitage compares them to inanimate objects rather than to living things. He says that his jaw is a ‘blown hinge’. Going into depth, this could
Child rearing practices have long been analyzed to understand the of affects child development; the plays, Fences and The Tempest, depict opposing parenting styles – thus causing the children to develop in their own unique way. Although both fathers, Troy and Prospero, control their children and challenge societal views, they display differing levels of control and attitudes toward society. While Troy attempts to control every aspect of Cory’s life and refuses to see how times have changed, Prospero allows more freedom for his daughter, Miranda and goes against society for his forward-thinking ideals. The development of Cory and Miranda is comprised of two components: interactions with their father and interactions with society. Through examining
Rhyme scheme follows quite a loose A, B, A, B pattern. The reason for the description of loose is that some lines end without true rhyme. For example, 'her fate' (l.2) then 'she sat' (l.4) does not follow the pattern which has been set out for most lines such as 'to bemoan' (l.1) and 'alone' (l.3). Furthermore, dialect may also interfere with pronunciation, especially with the end words of 'tongue' (l.6) and 'wrong' (l.8). This reoccurs later on with 'strove' (l.33) and 'love' (l.35) as well in other areas of the poem. However, seeming as this was composed in the 17th century, diction would have been different to that of the contemporary reader, meaning the form of the poem, in terms of reading aloud, may have had the correct rhyme intention.
There is a noticeable gap in regards to family conflicts and parent-child relationships in today’s society; it is also a prominent topic in writing. “The developmental stake and developmental schism hypothesis provides a useful framework for understanding why tensions exist in the parent and adult child relationship across the lifespan”(Psychology and Aging). This means that due to behaviors changing and the world around us changing, that it causes altered perspectives between the parent and the child which causes problems. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl,” and Sherman Alexie’s “What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona,” the reader notices a conflict between the children and the parents. Although the three stories slightly alter from each other, the messages are still relevant. The three stories present topics that are troubled in today’s society such as parents dealing with a lack of appreciation from a child,