New Meaning to Broumas' Little Red Riding Hood
There is more to Broumas' Little Red Riding Hood than meets the eye, or perhaps that is exactly where the analysis comes into play because the formalistic approach of analyzing literature consists of looking at a piece of literature and stating what is obviously there. The formalistic approach does give the work a deeper meaning than it first had, but the details are usually plain and easily noticeable. Generally they are very obvious, thus easily overlooked. The formalistic approach may be limited to pointing out the continual use of one word, but after noticing this fact a new meaning must be found as well. The reader is able to develop a broader understanding to Broumas' Little Red Riding Hood after using the formalistic approach to delve deeper into the poem. The formalistic approach reveals Broumas' use of repetition and choice of words give extra significance to her poem Little Red Riding Hood.
The easiest way to set about using the formalistic approach is to first read the poem paying careful attention to repetition, breaks, and description that may not have been noticed during the first reading. Using this technique on Little Red Riding Hood reveals an emphasis placed on the word old. Broumas writes,
I grow old, old
Without you, Mother, landscape
Of my heart.
The use of old can be read in two different ways. One approach could place more emphasis on the repetition of old, whereas the other could draw it toward "old without you." Either way it is read one realizes that the author is growing old without her mother. However reading it the first way adds about ten more years to her life because she is very old. The second way can be taken to literally mean that the author is a lot older without her mother. The description of her mother foreshadows a strict parent. It takes a lot of work to landscape a yard, and if the mother landscaped her daughter's heart it took a lot of work and a lot of rules.
Broumas continues the poem with a description of her mother giving birth. She uses phrases like "stretching it like a wishbone", "skin strung on a bow", and "tightened against the pain" to reveal to the reader that labor is not easy, in fact just the opposite because it is strenuous and very difficult.
An English professor of many years at the University of Michigan-Flint, Thomas C. Foster has delivered an impressive book: How to Read Literature like a Professor. This book is an invaluable tool for readers at any level that can be used to more easily identify and interpret the many symbols woven into books, short stories, poems, and other writings. In the book, Foster not only explains what common occurrences, such as rain or illness, can mean symbolically, but also gives numerous examples from the works of popular authors. While a quick glance at the title may not give the impression that the reading will be particularly enjoyable, a book cannot be judged by its cover.
The paper discusses the sound of the poem and how those certain words, said aloud, help to emphasize the meaning. Looking at the form of a poem in this way gave me a new way of looking at the text and finding the meaning. Personally, I have not had much familiarity looking at the sound of a text, but now see how the sound can be valuable when looking for the meaning of a text. I like to look at the imagery that is utilized in a text because I believe it works well in giving the reader a look into the text and bringing the text to life. What I have discovered reading about the formalist approach is to look at the overall form and how the text itself affects the meaning. Looking at the imagery and symbols helps me personally find the meaning in a text, so learning that the form of the text also can contribute to the meaning was
This poem is about abortion and the narrator used the mother’s point of view to express her feeling of how she felt after she aborted her unborn child. The mother felt terrible and remorse about what she did. In this poem I think that the Brooks might had experienced of abortion herself so she wrote this poem to let the reader know how terrible it is to have a abortion. So this will reduce to process of having a abortion.
In the book, Giovanni and Lusanna, by Gene Bucker, he discusses the scandalous actions of a Florentine woman taking a wealthy high status man to court over the legality of their marriage. Published in 1988, the book explains the legal action taken for and against Lusanna and Giovanni, the social affects placed on both persons throughout their trial, and the roles of both men and women during the time. From the long and complicated trial, it can be inferred that women’s places within Florentine society were limited compared to their male counterparts and that women’s affairs should remain in the home. In this paper, I will examine the legal and societal place of women in Florentine society during the Renaissance. Here, I will argue that women were the “merchandise” of humanity and their main objective was to produce sons.
I believe the opening text of “Old Mortality” illustrates both the conflicting views of different generations/values and ideals as well as the attempt to understand and resolve each other’s opposite. The first paragraph gives the reader a description of Aunt Amy. It is difficult to distinguish who the narrator of the text is at this particular point. It is neither Miranda or Maria nor the Grandmother. It would appear to be an omniscient narrator of no relation to the characters. Yet, the narrator displays the affect of both the young girls’ feelings and thoughts about Aunt Amy’s picture as well as the Grandmother’s perception of Amy.
“What?!” shouted Little Red. Her mother, who was in shock at her tone, replied, “ Little
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.
“When You Are Old” is about Maud Gonne, an Irish nationalist who William Butler Yeats was infatuated with and his unrequited love for her. In the poem, Maud Gonne is reflecting on past loves and relationships. She realizes that Yeats was her only companion who loved her unconditionally. Many loved her, or said they did, but not in every respect like Yeats. Perhaps if her realization were sooner, Yeats would have married her.
Perrault, B. (2003). Little red riding hood. In Schilb, J. and Clifford, J. (Ed.) Making literature matter (pp. 667-669). NY: Bedford/St. Martin?s.
Revenge almost always has the makings of an intriguing and tragic story. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a perfect example of how revenge unfolds and what it unveils. The play tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, marries his mother soon after his father’s death. Hamlet greatly disapproves of the hasty marriage and suspects foul play. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father appears and tells him that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet’s father asks him to take revenge upon Claudius, and soon everything takes a drastic change. The courses of revenge throughout Hamlet surround each character with corruption, obsession, and fatality.
It may be time to consider a literary work not as a predetermined product cast in a deterministic mold, but as a dynamic system that transcends the prevailing assumptions that are supposed to define its identity. The formal definitions can be just external to the composition of the text since we cannot expect the reader to know exactly what the author intended to write without falling into the trap of intentional fallacy.
Literature is a form of art with many facets, many obvious and others subtle. The surface of literature can be composed of many elements such as genre, form, rhythm, tone, diction, sentence structure, etc. Time periods, authors’ personal style and type of work all determine what elements are used in the literature. The deeper more subtle side of literature is the use of symbolism, imagery and the significance of the work. In most works of literature, parallels can be drawn between the author’s personality and current life’s events through the subject matter, the characters, and the use of specific literary techniques. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s use of literary techniques in the first two stanzas of The Lover: A Ballad, are consistent throughout the six stanza ballad identifying and refuting the ways in which women were defined by literature of the 18th century era.
The formalistic approach to reading is one of the most common approaches to reading literature. The formalistic approach has three main points to it: symbolism, allegory, and allusion. However these are not the only criteria that belong to the formalistic approach. Ambiguity, form, and organic form are also a part of it. Symbolism can refer to an image. "When an image takes on meaning beyond its objective self, it moves into the realm of symbolism (86)". Allegory is "a one to one equivalence between the surface meaning and a higher meaning(101)". An example of this is a man named Christian that is christian. Allusion is a reference to something else, maybe another piece of literature or another movie. Allusion can lead to the reader's knowledge of the rest of the story. Ambiguity is the use of a particular word, but yet the word itself has many different meanings. Form is the way the reader identifies a story whether it is a story or a poem. The organic form has two parts: the local texture and logical structure. The local texture is the specific metaphors while the logical structure is the basic idea or argument of the story.
The alternative and so-called politically correct version of the Little Red Riding Hood starts with the well know beginning. She goes to her grandma, who is in this version not sick but fully capable of taking care of herself as a mature adult.