Wong Phui Nam’s “At the Door” is mainly giving a voice to the unwanted unborn who struggles with death in the early stage of its life. The persona begins by questioning its mother on why did she poisons it. From line “the poisons seep down, blacken leaf and stem” giving readers the images of death as the poison oozes slowly in painful and destroying manner. The news of pregnancy and birth are in general received as something blissful and joyful, however it is obviously not the case for this pregnancy. This poem illustrates sadness and grief of the discarded foetus, giving it a melancholy tone.
The foetus is seen as a plant. The new life of the foetus as symbolises in “leaf”, “stem” and “roots” are “blacken”, “pinch” and “disarrange” and it is deformed before birth by the poison. More images of deformity can be seen in the second stanza. The persona states the “streams” and “blood” that gives the notion of new life, is contaminated and hence deformed its “hooked tail” which is supposed to develop to be its legs and the “forked ends” as its fingers. The stained and ruined blood causes by the poison has fatally lead the deformity of the foetus and disregard the existence of this new life.
The persona’s unwanted existence is described more in the moment of its birth in the third stanza. The persona again questions its mother wonder if she ever pictures the condition of her child in her womb. Instead of developing into a well transformed human being, due to the seeping poison the foetus “melted back into glistening bunched gel”. This image offers readers an ugly sight of the deformed, unwanted embryo. The deformed foetus that is depicted as “glistening bunched gel, / red grapes” is “expelled” from the womb, reinforcing the idea of the unwanted existence by being violently thrown out from the womb where it is presumed to be safe and warm for the new comer.
The persona continues by inquiring its mother if she finds life difficult like the way it feels and this notion is portrayed through the dictions, “harsh” and “sharp anxieties”. Persona sees itself as “delicate” “crystals” implying the notion of fragility and can easily be destroyed.
Stanza two shows us how the baby is well looked after, yet is lacking the affection that small children need. The child experiences a ‘vague passing spasm of loss.’ The mother blocks out her child’s cries. There is a lack of contact and warmth between the pair.
...en-year-old girl”. She has now changed mentally into “someone much older”. The loss of her beloved brother means “nothing [will] ever be the same again, for her, for her family, for her brother”. She is losing her “happy” character, and now has a “viole[nt]” personality, that “[is] new to her”. A child losing its family causes a loss of innocence.
[A] fetus is a benign tumor, a vampire who steals in order to live. (Paglia p.11)
pity in the reader by reflecting on the traumatic childhood of her father, and establishes a cause
The story shows prejudice of people. Like “Lusus Naturae”, the family treats her like a monster which starts from the stereotyping of appearance. Actually the behavior and mind of the family are cruel like a monster nature although their figures are not a monster. People should be concerned more on inner sight as compared to visible sight. Also, the appearance should not be a reason to discriminate human
Any interpretation of this story is due to the reader’s personal emotions and feelings toward his or her own Papa. This story can be either a dance between him and his father, thus bringing them closer together. However, there is a darker side of this poem, on this side it is an unsettling fight between a boy and his drunken father and all the intimacy of the dance does not make an impression on the reader and is overshadowed by the anger they feel.
The daughter alludes to an idea that her mother was also judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. By the daughters ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child was, there is sense of freedom for both when the daughter find her true self. Line such as “your nightmare of weakness,” and I learned from you to define myself through your denials,” present the idea that the mother was never able to defeat those that held her captive or she denied her chance to break free. The daughter moments of personal epiphany is a victory with the mother because it breaks a chain of self-loathing or hatred. There is pride and love for the women they truly were and is to be celebrated for mother and daughter.
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
As a teen, Rayona is in a confusing period of life. The gradual breakdown of her family life places an addition burden on her conscience. Without others for support, Rayona must find a way to handle her hardships. At first, she attempts to avoid these obstacles in her life, by lying, and by not voicing her opinions. Though when confronting them, she learns to feel better about herself and to understand others.
The first effect of the birth imagery is to present the speaker's book as a reflection of what she sees in herself. Unfortunately, the "child" displays blemishes and crippling handicaps, which represent what the speaker sees as deep faults and imperfections in herself. She is not only embarrassed but ashamed of these flaws, even considering them "unfit for light". Although she is repulsed by its flaws, the speaker understands that her book is the offspring of her own "feeble brain", and the lamentable errors it displays are therefore her own.
Soon, he caught the attention of a young pregnant woman who was standing in-front of the bookshelf and checking out the book of “New Parents Advice” with his husband. The women is around 30-35 years old, wore a low-heeled shoes with a big belly; while her husband showed people a mature feeling with his beard. And it is hard to tell how old is he. I can hear their conservation clearly since they were standing behind the bookshelf next to me. The couple was having a conservation about how to divide the work on taking care the upcoming baby in the future. Their conservation is full of love and with an air of expectancy. She always touched her belly gentlely and stretched the top of her head toward the ceiling while she was reading the book of with his husband. Their simile told me that she is so excited to meet their new born baby. However, her sentiment and emotion immediately affected by the disturbing atmosphere. The boy
Offred contrasts the way she used to think about her body to the way she thinks about it now. Before, her body was an instrument, an extension of herself. But now her self no longer matters and her body is only important because of its `central object', her womb which can bear a child.
Infant Sorrow by William Blake is about the birth of a child into a dangerous world. The meaning behind this poem is that when a baby is born, they are entering a place that is unfamiliar to them and is full of hazardous circumstances and then seeks for safety and comfort by sulking on the mother's breast. Instead of blatantly telling the reader, Blake uses several poetic devices to deliver the meaning of Infant Sorrow. Some of the devices he uses are images, sound, figurative language, and the structure to bring out the meaning of his poem.
The father is developed mainly using symbolism through diction in the extract. The father is represented using diction that associates him with animal imagery, and displays him as being in control of the situation. The authors use
The study of infanticide is connected to a visual drama of a family corruption. Tilden, a burnt out has been a failure in life and banned from New Mexico due to some trouble has come home. His incestuous relationship with Halie his mother caused the child to be born and the incident was the catalyst of the crime. Dodge who knew that the child was not his destroyed it. This infanticide though committed by Dodge was a sin shared by the actions of all these three characters. It weighed upon the family as a whole leading to alienation and dissociation.