Upon reading Robert Hayden's 1970 poem, 'The Whipping'; (1075), one may find themselves feeling very disturbed. The title is not subtle in hiding the fact that the plot of the poem is of a mother beating her son. The tone of the poem is very violent, and filled with a lot of anger. The boy's character immediately demands sympathy from the reader and just as instantaneously, the mother is hated by the reader. From his first stanza, to his sixth, Hayden utilizes an arsenal of words, symbols, and images to create a scene that is intense and emotional to the reader.
Hayden introduces his poem with the first stanza, which begins with 'The old woman across the way/ is whipping the boy again'; (1-2). These lines create a setting, where the characters are introduced and the action that the title stated is in progress. One thing that the reader does sense is that this whipping is not unusual. It is happening again and whoever the narrator is, he is not surprised or alarmed that this is happening. The last two lines of the stanza describe the mother very well. She is 'shouting to the neighborhood/ her goodness and his wrongs'; (3-4). Its as if she feels that by yelling her son's faults and her goodness, she is trying to justify her own wrongfulness of beating her son. She chose to shout, so that everyone would hear, almost as if she was confessing her sins. She seems to be making a show, a production out of this beating. She is trying to humiliate her son even more by beating him outside, instead of inside the house. A simple, four- lined introduction creates a perfect image of the event that is unfolding.
In stanza two, the setting and the mother's physical appearance is revealed in further detail. The setting is in front of the house in a garden of some sort, full of lush plants, greenery, and bright flowers. In contrast, the boy is being viciously thrown and beaten into this delicate foliage. 'Wildly he crashes through elephant ears, / pleads in dusty zinnias'; (5-6). Another symbolic image Hayden portrays is of the zinnias. Zinnias are typically supposed to be a plant with variously colored beautiful flowers; these zinnias are dusty, implying that they are dull, lifeless, and unattended. This is symbolic of the boy. If properly taken care of, a boy can grow into a vivid, colorful, young man, but if mist...
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...tanza shows the reader the fat old woman leaning against a tree physically tired. Hayden also states that the woman is purged, meaning she has cleansed herself from all guilt, sins, and impurities. This usage of purged guides the reader into the next two lines. ' avenged in part for lifelong hidings / she has had to bear'; (23-24). The woman feels redemption after beating her child because she was abused in her life also. This final stanza answers the question of why is the mother so abusive to her child?
In no way does the 'Whipping'; justify child abuse just because the parent had been abused in the past. However, it does reinforce the fact that abuse is past on from generation to generation and happens everywhere. Hayden uses the perfect point of view in this scenario. The omniscience from the third person allows the reader to feel the personal connection of the narrator and of the family he views across the street. The excellent selection and usage of 'purged'; lead the reader right into his conclusion of the poem. In using many of the weapons in writing Hayden strategically conquers the reader's thoughts and emotions in the poem 'The Whipping';.
When an author romanticizes a piece of literature, he or she has the power to convey any message he or she wishes to send to the reader. Authors can make even the most horrible actions, such as Dustan murdering ten savages in their sleep and justify it; somehow, from both the type of mood/tone set in this piece of literature, along with the powerful word choice he used, Whittier had the ability to actually turn the tables on to the victim (i.e. the ten “savages” who were murdered in their sleep). “A Mother’s Revenge” by John Greenleaf Whittier, is a prime example of how authors can romanticize any situation into how they want to convey their message.
The girl's mother is associated with comfort and nurturing, embodied in a "honeyed edge of light." As she puts her daughter to bed, she doesn't shut the door, she "close[s] the door to." There are no harsh sounds, compared to the "buzz-saw whine" of the father, as the mother is portrayed in a gentle, positive figure in whom the girl finds solace. However, this "honeyed edge of li...
Early in the poem “Marginalia,” Collins explores the emotions of readers and annotators and claims “the notes are ferocious, [including] skirmishes against the author raging along the borders of every page” (Lines 1-3). By describing the annotations as “ferocious” and “raging,” it is more easily conveyed that the annotations are predatory towards the author in defense of one’s own frustration in seeking a nonexistent underlying message. Similarly, in “Introduction to Poetry,” Collins is faced with the challenge of persuading readers, “but all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” (Lines 12-14). By choosing the word “torture,” Collins is enforcing that the annotations are aggressive and readers retain that anger and violence which is forcing literature to give up a meaning that it is not willing to give up or supposed to give up. The word choice clearly portrays the emotions being felt by readers and how they use their annotations to support the need for an extensive interpretation of the reading.
Abuse is a difficult and sensitive subject that can have long lasting effects. These traumatic emotional effects are often intensified if the abuse happens at a young age because children do not understand why the abuse is happening or how to deal with it. There are many abuse programs set up to counter the severe effects which abuse can have. Even more, poets and writers all over the world contribute works that express the saddening events and force the public to realize it is much more real than the informative articles we read about. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz which looks carefully through the eyes of a young boy into the household of an abusive father. Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays is a similar poem from the perspective of a young adult reflecting back on the childhood relationship with his father and the abuse his father inflicted. These poems are important because they deal with the complex issues surrounding the subject of abuse and also show the different ways which children react to it. My Papa’s Waltz and Those Winter Sundays are similar poems because they use tone, imagery, and sounds and rhythms to create tension between the negative aspects of abuse and the boys own love and understanding for their father.
When reading a story or a poem, readers tend to analyze, and develop their own opinions. Any content an author or poet produces is up to the reader to question, and identify what the story is trying to say. The point that I am stating is that, stories are like maps that we readers need to figure out. We have to find the starting point, and get to the destination of our conclusion, and the thoughts we have about the story or poem. In the stories that we have read so for throughout the semester, they all have different messages of what they are trying to convey to the reader in a way that can be relatable. Among all the author’s and poet’s works we have read, I have enjoyed Theodore Roethke’s poems. Roethke has developed poems that explore emotions that readers can relate to. I would like to explain and interpret the themes that Theodore Roethke expresses in the poems “My Papa’s Waltz”, “The Waking”, and “I Knew a Woman”.
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
“The Mother” (Gwendolyn Brooks) has three stanza has and aabbccdd etc. rhyming scheme that is called couplets. The first stanza The first stanza started of “abortions will not let you forget” (Gwendolyn Brooks) this is a strong statement that supported the theme of this poem. Then Brooks go on and telling how the mother did not get to hold the child that she aborted and how sad it was for her.
His ungratefulness as a child has now emerged on him, leaving the speaker ashamed of taking his father’s hard work for granted. In this poem he writes, “…fearing the chronic angers of that house//Speaking indifferently to him/who had driven out the cold…” (Hayden, 17). When he quotes “fearing chronic angers”, the speaker refers to his view of life as a child, and how he interpreted his father’s agony and self-sacrifice as anger towards him. With an apathetic and cold attitude that accompanied his youth, he did not recognize the love that his father had for him. Hayden also writes, “What did I know, What did I know…” (Hayden 17). Repeating this rhetorical question twice it is obvious that the speaker, now as an adult, feels deep remorse over the way he had treated his father. With a matured mind, Hayden came to the realization that love comes in all shapes and forms, and his father’s love was shown through his selfless
Although the little girl doesn’t listen to the mother the first time she eventually listens in the end. For example, in stanzas 1-4, the little girl asks if she can go to the Freedom March not once, but twice even after her mother had already denied her the first time. These stanzas show how the daughter is a little disobedient at first, but then is able to respect her mother’s wishes. In stanzas 5 and 6, as the little girl is getting ready the mother is happy and smiling because she knows that her little girl is going to be safe, or so she thinks. By these stanzas the reader is able to tell how happy the mother was because she thought her daughter would be safe by listening to her and not going to the March. The last two stanzas, 7 and 8, show that the mother senses something is wrong, she runs to the church to find nothing, but her daughter’s shoe. At this moment she realizes that her baby is gone. These stanzas symbolize that even though her daughter listened to her she still wasn’t safe and is now dead. The Shoe symbolizes the loss the mother is going through and her loss of hope as well. This poem shows how elastic the bond between the daughter and her mother is because the daughter respected her mother’s wish by not going to the March and although the daughter is now dead her mother will always have her in her heart. By her having her
... The author specifically pointed out this fact, noting its importance. That line combined with the other events in the poem draws the reader to the conclusion there is a hostile and abusive mood about the text.
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
The story “Royal Beatings” is a beautiful representation of a young girl’s view of the world around her. Munro uses vivid details to create a story and characters that feel real. She draws the reader in and allows the reader to understand Rose through her poignant words about her life. Then, in the end, enables the reader to make the connections that Rose perhaps misses. “Royal Beatings” is not about any particular moment in Rose’s life or any certain action related to the reader. The story is, in fact, not about plot at all. It is instead about creating characters with a sense of verisimilitude and humanity while revealing “all their helplessness and rage and rancor.”
Life is a game of experiences. From learning how to ride a bike to eating your first slice of delicious pizza, good or bad experiences shape who we are. In “ The Whipping” by Robert Hayden experiences haunt two of three characters. By using diction, figurative language, and point of view Hayden illustrates the effects that our past memories can have in our lives.
The structure of the poem logically supports the theme of conflict and "imperialism" in that it is clearly divided into two sections or "camps." The first four stanzas offer a description of "you", the "righteous and heroic" cowboy who brutalizes life without creating new life. The perspective shifts then from predator to prey in the final five stanzas as "I", presented as victimized woman and exploited nature, "addresses" her antagonist. The tone or mood of "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy" also undergoes a change after the first four stanzas when the reader enters the tragic, joyless experience of one who is paying the price of "slaughter and desecration." At this point in the poem, it seems futile to consider whether or not the price should be paid and the metaphoric man-woman tension remains distrubingly unresolved. In terms of form, "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy" is written in open (org...
In Hayden’s poem “The Whippings,” the readers are given a more direct vision of what Hayden experienced at the hand of his foster mother. Hayden writes the poem in third person as he reminisces about how his mother “strikes and strikes the shrilly circling boy till the stick breaks,” and how “his tears are rainy weather to wound like memories” (The Whipping 1). He then ends the poem with by saying “… and the woman leans muttering against a tree, exhausted, purged—avenged in part for life long hidings she has to bear” (The Whipping 1). We see through the eyes of Hayden himself, that his foster mother would go far beyond a simple disciplinary punishment. Instead, she beat him in order to release her own frustrations for the demons in her life. Her actions filled Hayden’s childhood memories with pain and sorrow, and we see that through his own recollections in “The Whippings,” and “Those Winter Sundays” alike. In the poem “Those Winter Sundays,” Hayden’s choices in diction like the words “cracked,” and “ached” initiate the gloomy tone of the poem, and reflect the pain that derived from his relationship with his foster mother, which also could be a reason for the purposeful absence of Hayden’s foster mother in the poem (Howells 288-289). The reader also interprets that Hayden’s painful memories of being beaten and tormented as part of the unspecified “chronic angers” that haunt