The Importance of Questioning Authority
While one may assume that Tracy K. Smith is only speaking about the relationship between a mother and daughter in her poem “No-Fly Zone 3,” she is actually using this relationship as a metaphor to discuss the importance of questioning authority throughout our lives. Throughout this poem, the daughter embodies the symbol as an obedient follower, while the mother embodies the symbol as an authority figure.
At the beginning of the poem, Smith introduces the relationship between the mother and daughter by describing an interaction that occurs between them. The reader only observes this one interaction. The mother tells the daughter “save yourself,” and the daughter—without even considering questioning her mother— “answered yes” (l. 2-3). Furthermore, Smith begins this poem with the phrase “once upon a time,” which suggests that the poem would be like that of a fairy tale: never-ending happiness and joy (l. 1). Considering the main idea of the poem, Smith uses this phrase in a satirical way to introduce the relationship between the mother and daughter, or the authority figure and the obedient follower. Smith is saying that the relationship is some ideal fairy tale, the authority figure would give instructions and the follower would obey them without question—thus resulting in never-ending happiness. Returning to the obvious relationship of the mother and daughter, this relationship is acutely innocent. The daughter trusts her mother so much
Here opening line is “Once upon a time there was a wife and a mother one too many times” (Meyer 39). Here we find a stereotypical opening for a fairy tale but soon readers immerse themselves in an atypical tale. The first hints that she has an idea life start to resound in the very first sentence. “One winter evening she looked at them: the husband durable, receptive, gentle; the child a tender golden three.” Then the striking line, “The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again.” (Meyer 39). Unlike Melville, Godwin, quickly states the dissonance between the character and the character’s family.
Children often learn about their society’s ideals of love and relationships from fairy tales. Told from a female perspective, the poem Puce Fairy Book by Alice Major challenges and disproves the unfeasible and degrading expectations that women are held to, specifically by men in relationships. The motivation of the speaker, addressing a male counterpart, is to say that she does not care for other’s opinions of her faults and does not desire such unaccepting people in her life. Major’s use of fairy tale allusions and metaphors play an important role in establishing the central message that is the “perfect” ideological image that society has created for women to conform to are unrealistic and
In stanza 12, she tells us that he has “bit her pretty red heart in two.” Next, she states that he died when she was ten, and when she was twenty years old, she attempted suicide - “…I tried to die, to get back back back to you.” In stanza 13 is where she starts talking about her husband. She says that instead of dying, her friends “stuck her together with glue,” and since she could not die to get back to her father, she would marry someone who was similar.
“Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin 39). This short story begins with the famous opening, once upon a time, which foreshadows that the story line will be similar to a fairy tale. It raises expectations for the story that all will be magical and end happily. A typical modern-day fairy tale is that of a distressed character who overcomes an obstacle, falls in love with prince charming, and they ride off into the sunset; living happily ever after never to be heard from again. Godwin however, puts an unexpected twist on “A Sorrowful Woman”. This short story is a tale about what can happen when everyday roles take over our identity. Ultimately, this short story challenges societal expectations of marriage
In chapter one, also known as ‘the hurting’, the author focuses on trauma that people have dealt with such as sexual abuse from a father or relative, failed relationships with parents, and difficulty with one’s self-expression. One of the poems in chapter one states that the girl’s first kiss was by the age of five and was carried out in an aggressive manner by the young boy, she assumes that he had picked that up from his father’s interactions with the mother. In the poem it says “He had the smell of starvation on his lips which he picked up from his father feasting on his mother at 4 a.m.” It is insinuated that the father uses forceful actions towards the mother during times that should be gentle and affectionate. In that specific poem she felt as if that was when she was taught that her body is only for giving to those who wanted out of satisfaction but she should feel ‘anything less than whole’. In another poem in chapter one, there is a family setting during dinner in which the father orders the mother to hush. This represents how women are constantly oppressed in their own
The jealous tone disappears at the end, however, and the poem ends wistfully and resigned stating that, “It’s an old/story—the oldest we have on our planet--/the story of replacement” (16-18). The speaker realizes that aging is part of the continuous life process, which starts at birth and ends at death. She understands that each phase of life has a specific purpose for maintaining the species. Her daughter must mature so she can create new life, just as the speaker did ten years ago. She knows that eventually her daughter will replace her and that the life process will continue to repeat itself for generations to come.
The article, the book, and I, talk about how daughters feel their mothers don’t know them and that they don’t know their mothers. They talk about how a daughter listens to her mother, but there is a certain point in a young woman 's mind where they decide they want to see and explore new ideas. In conclusion, they all talk about the point in a daughter 's life where she and her mother don’t get along very well and the daughter tries to take charge of her life.
“The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko: This story tells of the death of a tribal elder (Teofilo). Upon his death, his grandsons, Leon and Ken, secure his body and proceed to apply their cultural rituals for a burial. “Before they wrapped the Oldman, Leon took a piece of string out of his pocket and tied a small gray feather in the old man’s long white hair. Ken gave him the paint. Across the brown wrinkled forehead, he drew a streak of white and along the high cheekbones he drew a strip of blue paint.” (Silko, 439) Not knowing much about Native American beliefs I do know that feathers and face painting is a large part of their culture. This is the first clue given that the characters in this work are Native American. After gathering his body they proceed to bring him back to they have an interaction with the local Catholic priest, Father Paul. During this interaction, the family members don’t tell Father Paul that their grandfather has passed when he asks did they locate him. At once I could tell that there is a rift of some nature because the ritual they just performed on the body would be in stark contrast/opposition to a Catholic burial. The author of this novel is describing the encroachment of religion on Native American culture. This is again shown when Ken and Leon stop by the church to ask Father Paul to use holy water to the graveyard. The reasoning for the sprinkling of the holy water is so that Teofilo could send big thunderclouds from the
Ever since the tragic events that took place on September 11th the government has tightened its reins on public safety and possible terrorist activities. The article compares different wars in America and how they have shaped many of America's philosophies. For example during World War II Roosevelt enforced rationing and a military draft. When people think of democracy they think of power to the people and freedom. However, the article discusses the fact that since 9/11 there has been a lack of trust between the government and the citizens of America. The government has heightened law enforcement and surveillance of citizens, cracking down on immigration and terrorist activities. The article say, “Our wars are no longer engines of freedom
This paper focuses on exploring the styles and techniques used by Siegfried Sasson in his war-poem The Rear-Guard. This poem is about the negative effects of war on the minds of soldiers and the events happening in the battle field. Sasson is commonly known as a war-poet as he experienced them personally being part of Royal Welsh army. In this paper the techniques of foregrounding i.e. deviation and parallelism are used to make the implicit meanings explicit, used by the writer. Stylistics analysis is done using the technique of foregrounding. The analysis shows that the horror and brutality is shown by making readers part of poem, it means that the style used is autobiographical which shows the dangers and experiences faced by soldiers
Margaret Atwood’s satirical poem, “There Was Once”, aims to disrupt the generic conventions of a traditional fairy tale. Atwood begins with the traditional opening of a fairy tale by writing, “there once was a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest” (Atwood 406). Atwood begins to dissect the aspects of a fairy tale by first calling out the normal backdrop, which is a forest. Then, she points out that the girl in the story was never poor to begin with since she lived in a house. Atwood questions why the protagonist must always be beautiful, pointing out the current problems surrounding women and body image. Atwood also complains about the fact that all of the female leads in fairy tales are white, possibly alluding to Hollywood’s constant whitewashing of films. She attacks the idea that the “evil stepmother” must always be evil and be a female, pointing out that if the stepmother had to be
What would one expect from a father who kept his daughter locked in a cell for decades to Abu Gharaib? The poem No-Fly Zone from the collection of Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith tells about the bitter truth of do’s and don’ts, which are faced by a girl during her advancement to maturity. With the use of elegy, socio-political commentary, anecdotes and metaphors, Smith has tried to move the readers into her universe, which is a mix of joy and pain. Life on Mars mainly concerns about the dark aspects of human being. From the title of the poem No-Fly Zone, it is clear that girls are prohibited to reach out from the specified area. The imagery in Smith’s poem No-Fly Zone reveals the ambiguity of what the girl has to fear about, her loneliness, and why she has to save herself.
The last line, “a heart whose love is innocent,” reflects that the woman is truly pure and has a good heart. This line leave the reader feeling very peaceful knowing that this maiden is pure and true in her innocence.
In the first part of the poem is presented the daughter in law and her early maturization. Her mother-in-law and the marriage destroyes her life. She thinks that her mother-in-law limits her life and also meaningless. She was a educated woman, her mind is fertile but she is unable to utilize it. She used to be fresh, young, and beautiful, but her marriage and motherhood have befallen her, and now she will make coffee and dust everything on the whatnot everyday of her