a. “Abortion will not let you forget (line 1).” b. Gwendolyn Brooks starts off her poem “The Mother” with an attention-grabbing line. In this poem, the narrator contemplates abortion, what it is and the lives that could have been led by the children that she never had. c. Brooks puts irony to use throughout this poem, from the title to the final lines. II. Body a. The use of irony can be found in the very beginning of the poem and even before. i. The title “The Mother” is ironic in that the “mother” never actually gave birth to any children. ii. The second line, “You remember the children you got that you did not get,” speaks of the fetuses she was pregnant with, but has aborted. iii. In lines 5-6, “You will never neglect or beat/ Them, or …show more content…
In this part of the poem, she describes the lives the children could have and what she had taken away from them, if they would have ever become children. At the end, she says, “Even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate (line 21),” meaning that even though she made the decision to abort her pregnancies, she wasn’t deliberately trying to take those things away from her children who would never be. c. The last part of the poem uses irony while the mother is questioning abortion, and what abortion itself means. i. “…You are dead./ Or rather, or instead,/ You were never made (lines 24-6.)” Here, the mother is questioning whether or not she killed her unmade children by having an abortion. Is it murder if they were never born? ii. “You were born, you had body, you died./ It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.” Here she says that the children lived, but without actually living—never laughing, planning or crying. III. Conclusion Throughout “The Mother,” from beginning to end, Brooks utilizes irony to show the inner struggle of a mother who was never a mother. From the title itself to the final lines, the use of irony was apparent as the narrator addresses her nonexistent children, imagines the lives they might have led, and questions what abortion really
Are all mothers fit for motherhood? The concept of motherhood is scrutinized in the stories “The Rocking Horse Winner” and “Tears Idle Tears”. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H Lawrence the mother, Hester, unpremeditatedly provokes her son into providing for her through gambling. In the story “Tears Idle Tears” by Elizabeth Bowen, Mrs. Dickinson disregards her son’s emotions and puts more emphasis in her appearance than her son’s wellbeing. Hester and Mrs. Dickinson both were inadequate mothers. Both the mothers were materialistic, pretended to love their offspring, and their dominance hindered their children’s progress in life.
The author, L Frank Baum, uses this irony thematically, with the message being that sometimes what we are looking for in life is right in front of us.
In the novel All Over but the Shoutin’ Rick Bragg shows the love and devotion of what every mother should have through his mother. The only woman that Bragg truly cares for and takes time out of his day is for his mother Margaret Marie. Bragg tries to do the best for his mother and tries his best to make her proud of him. Bragg learned early in life that his mother strived to give her children everything possible. For Mrs. Bragg her children are the reason she wakes up everyday and tries to make a better life for them.
It is ironic in the sense that her shortest lines in the poem contradict each other. She discussed the letter in the mail, and then discussed the phone she is using and how she needs to put it down. The sentence “I had the idea” also adds to the thought that in her world, people are thinking using the mind that was wonderfully created without the help of technology. In a busy world of words and moments happening so fast, these short sentences appeal to the readers by letting us take in the words one by one. The purpose of her using these short, easy to understand sentences is to emphasize the idea that these are the little things that we need to most appreciate.
This heavy word choice made by Harper continues throughout the following stanzas as well, and this evokes a sympathetic feeling from the audience. At this point, it has not been revealed that the person with the "burden'd heart" is a mother, but it still conveys the anguish that the woman is feeling. The woman is also described as having a "bowed and feeble head," and this conveys the helplessness that the woman is feeling in the scene (stanza 2, line 6). The author continues with this tone when the son is introduced as well. He is described as having a "trembling form" that the mother is trying to hide behind herself (stanza 4, line 16). At this point in the poem, it is made much clearer that the mother and son are slaves because the narrator says that "he is not hers," meaning that even though she gave birth to the boy, he was owned by the slave owners (stanza 5, line 17). Therefore, her own son could never truly belong to her. Slavery has created this situation, and the woman was so desperate to get out that she was willing to run away with her son in order for him to have a better love. When they were caught and the threat that he would be taken from her became real, she became devastated and desperate. However,
On the third stanza, she pretty much saying that it is not her fault that she had a abortion and she has no choice but to do it. “Since anyhow you are dead, Or rather, or instead, You were never made” (Gwendolyn Brooks) she making excuses of what she had done.
Throughout the whole short story “The Story of an Hour” the reader sees’ irony but the best usage of irony occurs toward the end of the story in the last few paragraphs. As the reader reads the story they notice that Mrs. Mallard’s husband Brently Mallard died in a railroad disaster. The reader also finds out that Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble, and great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death. (157) There ar...
Unlike the rest of the poem, these final lines are not ironicthey are serious and sad. But the impact of the plain and simple conclusion is much more effective because of its contrast with the ironic tone which precedes it.
With the final lines give us a better understanding of her situation, where her life has been devoured by the children. As she is nursing the youngest child, that sits staring at her feet, she murmurs into the wind the words “They have eaten me alive.” A hyperbolic statement symbolizing the entrapment she is experiencing in the depressing world of motherhood.
Another example of irony is when Leonce comes back from his night of enjoyment and tries to wake Enda up to be his audience. Leonce gets annoyed when she does not give him her attention and here the voice of the story refers to Edna as him “sole object of his existence”. “He thought it very dis...
While studying new criticism and reader response we were told to read the poem “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Throughout this essay I will be applying what I have learned in class to help dissect that experience to clearly differentiate both. First I will talk about new criticism and what it was like reading “The Mother” through that style. Then I will continue on to reader response and share the journey through our reading with that style. After that I will compare the similarities between both styles. Finally, to conclude I will briefly discuss which one I preferred more.
..., a loss that everyone can either sympathize or empathize. However, instead of focusing on the pain and heartbreak of not having a mother, the narrator instead takes strength in the fact that her mother is connected to nature. Although her mother is not physically in her life, her body has, instead, been buried in the ground like a seed. This brings the narrator solace because at least her mother’s essence will always be present as long as there are trees, grass, and animals.
" its hard not to feel some sadness or even a feeling of injustice. All the incidents that I mentioned in the previous paragraph are among the many vivid images in this work. Brooks obviously either had experience with abortions or she felt very strongly about the issue. The feelings of sadness, remorse, longing, and unfulfilled destinies were arranged so that even someone with no experience or opinion on this issue, really felt strong emotions when reading "The Mother". One image that is so vivid that it stayed with me through the entire poem was within the third line.
Irony is an effective way for a poem, playwright or author to lighten an otherwise dark or cryptic story while simultaneously putting emphasis the story’s dark elements; in its obvious absence, the darkness of the story becomes more apparent. This is effective in many poems, such “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, which is about the death of a childhood lover. The persona, assumed to be male, highlights the youth of the his lover, Annabel Lee, referring to her as “this maiden” (Poe line 3) and “a child” (line 7) to underline the fact that she died too young and too soon. He blames this on the angels, who “coveted” (line 12) them and their love. Poe uses irony to contrast, and, therefore, puts emphasis on, the negative circumstances surrounding Annabel Lee’s death by retelling the events in an idyllic tone. Poe’s irony is successful due to his employment of diction and rhyme, which cause the poem to emulate the sing-song style of a nursery rhyme.
The poem The Mad Mother describes a woman that is going through hard times. She has lost her dignity and status as a wife because her husband has left her. Consequently she is stigmatized as crazy by her community and does not receive support from them. However, despite what she is going through, she is a happy woman because she has her child. She says, "Sweet babe! They say that I am mad / But nay, my heart is far too glad" (11-12) as she sings and rocks her baby. As long as she has her child, this woman seems content and fulfilled. It is clear in the poem that it is motherhood that brings enchantment and good spirits to the woman, and that she is dependent on her child for happiness.