Analysis Of Victoria Chang's Poem The Boss Is Back

489 Words1 Page

Alisa Tran
AP Literature
Mrs. Nelson
16 November 2015

Poem Theme Analysis: The Boss is Back
In the poem, The Boss is Back, written by Victoria Chang originates from her collection of poems in The Boss upon the hardships of office life. The continuous rhythm demonstrates the endless assigned tasks and projects given at the office, where breaks are nonexistent. Suffocation and anxiety are the main feelings of what how the persona feels. Overall, the persona contrasts between the rewards in good grades and how her boss fires the employees regardless of their performance. From the first stanza to the second stanza, the persona transitions between her identity of a mother and an employee implies how her work and personal identities are interconnected. …show more content…

Vivian Bearing undergoes an intensive cancer treatment, while she encounters a driven medical staff. As a well-known literature professor, she enjoys the challenge of seeking truth in complex or abstract ideas. While she lectures her college class, the students struggle to understand the lesson, for she assumes everyone shares the same amount of knowledge as she does. A doctorate degree in literature, Vivian takes pride in her assertions and lacks patience in explaining to others. Throughout her treatment, she loses control she once had in her classroom, shifting from a familiar and comfortable environment to the hostile and foreign hospital. In the presence of her doctors, her status shifts to being no longer the authority in the field. Once smart, ambitious, and capable of perception, Vivian is left weak and vulnerable for the first time. Vivian takes pride in her wisdom, for she knows that is the only trait that distinguishes her from the others. Ironically, what initially gave her courage eventually inhibits her ability to cope with her illness. The occurrence of obstacles is simply beyond our power to manage, therefore, those are the times when we are forced to relinquish and allow fate take

Show More
Related

  • Night Waitress By Lynda Hull: Poem Analysis

    373 Words  | 1 Pages

    Night Waitress by Lynda Hull is a poem that describes the feelings of a waitress that works the night shift of a diner Reflection of “Night Waitress” “Night Waitress” by Lynda Hull is a poem that describes the feelings of a waitress that works the night shift of a diner. The speaker obviously belongs to a lower social class, in the way of income and her occupation. Much like the character in this poem, the speaker in “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake works long, hard hours as a chimneysweeper. These two characters are both related in their ways of life and their classes in our society.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Margaret Edson's 'Wit'

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Vivian lived a life as a harsh individual, approaching death is a frightening time. Vivian should have been treated with more respect, professionalism, better communication, and with dignity. I believe that she could have had a better outcome in her recovery process even through the fatality of her illness she would have at least died in peace and dignity. Although Vivian didn’t have anyone that could help mindfully guide her through her decisions regarding her diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis for recovery the staff at the hospital should have been more concerned about advocating for her than they were with being concerned with using her for research.

    Read More

  • Margaret Edson's Wit: Truth Is The Motivation Of Idealism

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Margaret Edson's Wit, Vivian Bearing is a professor with deadly ovarian cancer whose life circles around knowledge and education. For many individuals, balance is fundamental component in life. Supporting equilibrium between idealism and truth is a incredible part of living stable and satisfied life. Vivian expresses that the fact of being idealistic within her being and her career is important, but you must acknowledge the reality of living as well. When she knows she have cancer Dr. Kelekian tells her to be tough. Flowing into a flashback, she tells the audience, "And I know for a fact that I am tough. A demanding professor. Uncompromising. Never one to turn from a challenge. That is why I chose, while a student of the great E. M. Ashford, to study John Donne," (6). Bearing equates her intellectual curiosity to emotional toughness, since the barely thing she feels relaxed wrapping her head around is challenging literary text. Vivian uses her high standards of education to motivate herself to be tough in her last hours of cancer, but with all her knowledge she seems imbalanced in her life. The Vivian idea of idealism and truth of existence is to be full contributing to knowledge of everything she does.

    Read More

  • Mike Nichols' Film, Wit

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    This film showed us some of the hard decisions that Vivian had to make such as when she agrees to the radical and painful chemotherapy. The film showed us the changes she went through like in her body and mind (hair, weakness, weight, color etc.).

    Read More

  • Mortality In Margaret Edson's Wit

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    She will come to view his work in a totally different light as she nears her death. She starts off very confident at the beginning of her treatment when she says “I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a scholar of Donne’s Holy Sonnets, which explore mortality…” (Edson 12). Unfortunately, she has no way to fully grasp what he means about fear, death, and salvation until each of those issues become painfully pertinent to her situation. Such difficult concepts as those cannot be fully comprehended until one comes face to face with them. Death has come to now confront Dr. Bearing and challenge everything that she used to be so sure about. Her cancer leads her to consider Donne in a new light, and she attempts to find comfort in his sonnets that used to bring her so much enjoyment. Although she quotes him and praises him, Donne’s words become painfully accurate. It is possible that she now wishes that she did not know so much about his anxieties about death, salvation, and forgiveness. All of these are now ideas that Vivian is running out of time to understand. Words here become a source of fear and a hindrance as her final day draws near. When it does reach those final moments, her old professor Dr. E.M. Ashford comes to visit her in the hospital, and Ashford offers to recite some Donne to Bearing to calm her, but adamantly refuses. So, the elderly Ashford reads a children’s tale about bunnies, which is more comforting to Vivian than the words of the man who the both of them devoted their lives to praising and understanding. Confusion is what Donne represented to Bearing, but the bunny story provided simplicity and assurance. She no longer wanted to feel fear. The children’s story brought her home to simpler times. This simple interaction with Ashford is something that Vivian wishes she could have had more of before it was too

    Read More

  • The Differences Of Dr Vivian Bearing And Dr. Margaret Edson

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    I think she does this because it brings her comfort and her whole life she dedicated to these works. It is almost as if it is a close friend of hers. As the treatment progresses and she is doing medically worse where the audience can now she the strain that she is under, we also see where she starts to realize the true meaning behind her work. The true meaning of life and suffering and death. The nurse, Susie is the first time that we see compassion from the medical team and Vivian responses of realizing that research and scholarly studies actually means very little in the larger scheme of life. Vivian actually realizes that life is about uncertainties and she cannot hide behind her scholar mask any longer and confides in Susie about her feelings. Vivian realizes a valuable lesson, that research is not the most important thing in life, but rather life, “I can’t believe my life has become so corny. But it can’t be helped. I don’t see any other way. We are discussing life and death, and not in the abstract, either; we are discussing my life and my death, and my brain is dulling, and poor Susie’s was never so sharp to begin with, and I can’t conceive of any other..tone… now is a time for simplicity. Now is a time for, dare I say it, kindness. I thought being extremely smart would take care of it. But I see that have been found out (Edson, 69) Vivian no longer finds comfort from scholarly sonnets, but rather

    Read More

  • The Movie Wit

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vivian tries to remain tolerant as she suffers through questions and tests from technicians; "grand rounds," where she is prodded by medical students and treated like a specimen rather than a human being. Through her whole ordeal she has to face the loneliness of the hospital not to mention of grueling time spent in an isolation ward. She had no visitors, and the hospital was no place for fun. There is even a part in the movie where Vivian speaks about the dull and tedious hospital atmosphere. Most regrettably, through all of this she is dealing with the terrible side-effects of the chemotherapy; and then the pain of the still spreading cancer.

    Read More

  • The Secretary Chant Analysis

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    Can you imagine going through stressful, exhausting, and depressing days repeatedly everyday? This could potentially ruin futures and also great opportunities in life. Marge Piercy’s poem, “ The Secretary Chant,” uses despondent vocabulary and a depressed tone to express her feelings on how your work could be the downfall of your life. The poem takes place in a secretary’s office where the secretary feels she is a tool in our society. Her body parts are being compared to a bunch of office supplies, thus making her seem like a tool not a human being. After a firm analysis on the Marge Piercy’s “ The Secretary Chant,” I have come to the decisions that people are tired of doing the same stressful work consistently without

    Read More

  • When Dr Wit Bearing Play Summary

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Dr. Vivian Bearing is telling her story, she acts as both the player and the narrator of the play. The plot jumps between a chronological timeline of her finding out about her cancer and her treatment progression, to her commentary of her own life and her past experiences as a teacher. In many ways, the entire play is a flashback, told as though she is already dead to begin with, and is just a ghost recounting various moments leading up to her death, pausing to examine past memories that blend with future events.

    Read More

  • Vivian's Emotional Vulnerability

    228 Words  | 1 Pages

    The emotional vulnerability that progressively increases shows that Vivian has undergone major self-reflection that has led to a change in her psyche which is important because it shows her development as a person and her effort to redeem herself in her last moments. Vivian herself states that she had “ruthlessly denied her simpering students the touch of human kindness she now seeks” (59). She then experiences a memory of the past in great vividity about a previous student who had come to her in his time of vulnerability to ask her for an extension on the paper, however, Vivian dismisses him by telling him “the paper is due when it is due” (63). After the memory fades, Vivian reflects on the scene of her past and she appears to experience

    Read More

  • Dr. Posner's Journey In The Play Wit By Margaret Edson

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dr. Kelekian, in his like-minded academic perspective, brings to light the original mindset of Dr. Bearing – one set solely on knowledge and void of any compassion. Furthermore, the contrasting characters of Dr. Posner and Susie help Dr. Bearing understand the necessity of human compassion. This transformation comes full circle in the final scenes where Dr. Bearing herself begins to show kindness to those around her. These are just a few of the ways in which Wit exemplifies the change that Dr. Bearing’s bout with cancer has brought about in her. From painting a picture of her past self to relaying her current situation to presenting a new perspective, Dr. Bearing beautifully showcases how a life of knowledge without human compassion is utterly

    Read More

  • Redemption in Wit

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    From flashbacks in the play, it is easy to depict that Vivian lived the life characterized by an inhuman lack of empathy. As the play opens, flashbacks of Vivian interactions with students show her having a serious problem. She lashes at a student for his failure to give feedbacks to her questions and she also denies giving another student an extension for the assignment. After the student explains that her grandmother died, this is what she says to her “do what you will but the paper is due when it is due” (63). This lack of empathy and arrogance apparently is unsocial, but she adopts it while pretending/believing to be advocating for excellence from her students and would not take fabricated excuses. This portrays her as a cynical person, and one who only cares about the success of what she does, therefore, does not make necessary compromises for healthy relationships. She thus suffers a high level of rudeness and arrogance that makes it extremely d...

    Read More

  • Professor Vivian Bearing vs John Donne in the Play Wit by Margaret Edson

    1918 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...s a moment when she starts to see the true meaning but doesn’t want to accept it at first, which is evident from the groaning and “hiding.” However, at the end of the play and the end of her life, Vivian is ready to accept this truth that she herself is living out the same life as the speakers in Donne’s poems and begins “reaching for the light –“ (Edson 66).

    Read More

  • Empathy In Wit By Vivian Bearing

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    Empathy is not the ability to ask what is wanted, it is the chance of understanding what may be needed. In Margaret Edson’s “Wit,” Vivian Bearing is faced with the life-threatening illness of ovarian cancer. Throughout her battle, she encounters Jason Posner and Susie Monahan, characters tasked with caring for her during her illness. Undeniably as Vivian’s health deteriorates, Jason and Susie are affected. Through various scenes and interactions, these characters reveal how they empathize with one another. Empathy requires them to not only step outside of their comfort zone, but also view the world in a different light thanks to Vivian.

    Read More

  • Vivian's Life Depicted In The Movie 'Wit'

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie Wit by Mike Nichols, showed the true horror of death by chemotherapy though the life of Dr. Vivian Bearing diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. The movie followed Vivian from the time she found out about her cancer to the moment that she passed, though this time Vivian also shared memories that related back to what was going on now in her life. During her stay in the hospital there were three people who impacted her stay the most; Doctor Kelekian who was her oncologist, Doctor Posner the Medical student involved in her case, and Nurse Monahan her primary care nurse. Let’s look at all three of Vivian care takers, along with Vivian herself, and a moment that really showed the true colors of the individual.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Victoria Chang's Poem The Boss Is Back

Open Document