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American literature and women's status
The situation of women in patriarchal society
American literature and women's status
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Adrienne Rich Defines Story
In “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” by Adrienne Rich the poet is able to touch on all the different stages in a woman’s life therefore adopting a story temperament. The story temperament can be defined as a poem having three parts consisting of a beginning, middle, and end. The poem also has to display unity, focus, conflict, and resolution. Every woman may face different conflicts in their lives but in the poem the women are faced with sadness and depression while living in a patriarchal society. The title itself is very strong in that it is not snapshots of a woman, but snapshots of a daughter-in-law. This title foreshadows a male figure in which the woman will be married to and dependent upon. The word snapshots can also foreshadow the different stages in a woman’s life certain photos (or stanzas) will capture.
With a strong relatable background, Rich is an advocate for women’s rights and equality to men in every aspect whether politically, socially, or economically. Coming from a traditional and intellectual family the poet married a Harvard economist and bore three children at a young age. Going through the same issues she discusses and wants to change allows the poem to become poetry of witness. If a woman remains independent and single throughout her lifetime something is thought to be wrong with her. From the moment women are born they are sucked into the norms of society, which is to be under her father’s guidance and protection growing up then ultimately become good wives for their husband once they marry. This signifies dependence on a man for mostly all a woman’s life.
The poem starts off describing a very young and naïve woman. “You, once a belle in Shreveport, with henna-colored hair, sk...
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... single photograph or “snapshot” which I believe Adrienne Rich did well. Full of conflict, dramatic tension, as well as a storyline with two sides Rich’s poem fulfills the story temperament requirements perfectly. Overall, “Snapshots of a Daughter-In-Law” is the embodied truth of submissive wives living in a patriarchal society seeking resolution or a sense of independence.
Works Cited
"American Poets of the 20th Century The Poets Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)." Adrienne Rich (1929-2012). N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
McClatchy, J.D. "Theodore Roethke." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry Second Edition. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage, 2003. 345-349. Print.
Orr, Gregory . "Four Temperaments and the Forms of Poetry." Four Temperaments and the Forms of Poetry. N.p., 1 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
A voice for voiceless which she finds from nowhere. Rarely a "homeless Man under the Bridge" could arouse such an inspiration to make him one of the most widely read poem of recent times. She tries to find the unwritten pages of life of a man who almost delivered a judgment on the masked masses of Britain.
Influenced by the style of “plainspoken English” utilized by Phillip Larkin (“Deborah Garrison”), Deborah Garrison writes what she knows, with seemingly simple language, and incorporating aspects of her life into her poetry. As a working mother, the narrator of Garrison’s, “Sestina for the Working Mother” provides insight for the readers regarding inner thoughts and emotions she experiences in her everyday life. Performing the daily circus act of balancing work and motherhood, she, daydreams of how life might be and struggles with guilt, before ultimately realizing her chosen path is what it right for her and her family.
Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.
In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.
The picture consist of six photographs, each constructing a formalized version of how the significant features of the relationship progress. The photographs imitate the concepts of a romance novel with subtleties suggesting a carefree life style this is shown with the hero playing his guitar. The heroine is also depicted as obstinate, wild, free and adventurous type this is illustrated in the image of her riding away on a horse in her wedding dress this also suggest that she is a runaway bride. They eventually marry as the fifth picture shows the man in his tuxedo and the couple embracing both seem happy as they are smiling.
Jarrell, Randall. ?Fifty Years of American Poetry.? The Third Book of Criticism. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
Heller, Joseph. The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Twentieth-Century American Literature Vol. 3. New York. Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
The influential roles of women in the story also have important effects on the whole poem. It is them that press the senses of love, family care, devotion, and other ethical attitudes on the progression of the story. In this poem the Poet has created a sort of “catalogue of women” in which he accurately creates and disting...
Immediately, the narrator stereotypes the couple by saying “they looked unmistakably married” (1). The couple symbolizes a relationship. Because marriage is the deepest human relationship, Brush chose a married couple to underscore her message and strengthen the story. The husband’s words weaken their relationship. When the man rejects his wife’s gift with “punishing…quick, curt, and unkind” (19) words, he is being selfish. Selfishness is a matter of taking, just as love is a matter of giving. He has taken her emotional energy, and she is left “crying quietly and heartbrokenly” (21). Using unkind words, the husband drains his wife of emotional strength and damages their relationship.
In Rita Dove’s “Daystar,” Dove describes an unnamed mother’s repetitive and exhausting daily routine to reflect the unsatisfying role that women play in society. The woman in the poem fulfills her duties as a mother by performing her chores and watching after her children, but at the end of the day, feels empty. Going through the same motions and actions day after day are not enough to fulfill the woman’s wants or needs anymore and she finds herself dreaming of a place other than the one she currently occupies. Dove switches tones frequently to express the emotions that the woman experiences throughout her day and uses disheartening words to mirror the mother’s displeasure with her life.
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
Modern American Literature G-O. Curley, Dorothy Nyren, Maurice Kramer, and Elaine Fialka Kramer. Vol. 2. New York: Frederick Unger Publishing Co. Inc., 1969.
Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. fifth ed. N.p.: W.W. Norton, 2005. 2120-2121. 2 Print.
“Lucille Clifton.” Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, 1997-2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/79 .
Works Cited “American Literature 1865-1914.” Baym 1271. Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.