Woodchucks by Maxine Kumin Maxine Kumin?s, Woodchucks provides an interesting and creative perspective into the mind state of those influenced by nazi warfare. What begins as a seemingly humorous cat and mouse hunt, reminiscent of such movie classics as Caddyshack, soon develops into an insatiable lust for blood. Kumin?s descriptive language provides the reader with the insight necessary to understand to the speaker?s psychology as they are driven beyond the boundaries of pacifism. The
Maxine Kumin is considered one of the best Jewish American poets of her time. She has won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for her work in Up Country. She has been compared to Anne Sexton, who was a fellow American confessionalist poet. Confessionalist poets tend to focus their poetry on personal matters that took place in their lives. For example, Kumin discusses the inner lives of her characters in her personal poems. She is considered a naturalist feminist because she gives her utmost importance
Poetry Analysis Maxine Kumin’s poem Woodchucks is not simply a farmer’s irritation over a couple of pesky woodchucks. The subject does have to do with humans having the tendency to become violent when provoked. However the theme of the poem takes a much darker path showing how it only takes something small to turn any normal humane person into a heartless murderer. The theme evolves by using dark references to the holocaust and basic Darwinist principles. These references are made through connotation
... ...tudied today but the inspiration for her poetry, her constant depression, forced Sexton to take her own life. In her work, she expressed the inner torture she endured and explored the depths of her mind and society. Works Cited Kumin, Maxine. Foreword. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. xix. Middlebrook, Diane Wood. Anne Sexton: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Parini, Jay. Editor. The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. New York:
The poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, is about the narrator’s attempt to eradicate woodchucks from a garden. The figurative message of the poem is how a person can change from good to evil effortlessly. The metaphor of the Holocaust is intertwined in the poem and helps enhance the figurative message. The uniform format and the implication of Kumin’s word choices creates a framework that allows the reader to draw out deeper meanings that the literary devices create. Maxine Kumin’s use of an undeviating
A Blame Artist The poem “Woodchucks” written by Maxine Kumin seems to be about the “speaker” in the poem attempting justify her actions, but it is actually about her blaming the woodchucks for bringing her out the desire to kill the woodchucks, the so called “Hunter.” If the the poem was supposedly about her justification of her actions, she would have talk more about the process of her trying to keep the woodchucks away from her garden and how she had to use the last method although she allegedly
From German to Nazi In her poem “Woodchucks”, author Maxine Kumin tells a story of a woodchuck and an average person turned killer. She speaks about how one’s humanity can be easily lost and turned into violence. She compares this to the transformation of Germans to Nazis. She displays that hatred such as the speaker experienced can lead to a loss in humanity and dramatic change in behavior. The speaker in the poem was a pacifist who was corrupted and now is reflecting on their actions. They became
Poetry Analysis Maxine Kumin’s poem Woodchucks is not simply a farmer’s irritation over a couple of pesky woodchucks. The subject does have to do with humans having the tendency to become violent when provoked. However the theme of the poem takes a much darker path showing how it only takes something small to turn any normal humane person into a heartless murderer. The theme evolves by using dark references to the holocaust and basic Darwinist principles. These references are made through connotation
The poem Catchment by Maxine Kumin has a theme of the harsh and depressing reality of nature. Throughout the poem she paints this nature story that completely pulls at the readers emotions. With extensive description, figurative language, and set structure Kumin demonstrates the uncontrollability and cruelty of nature. I wrote my poem Ocean to use these similar poetic devises to communicate the same theme. In Catchment the speaker uses extremely detailed descriptions to describe the events. By
Story-telling in The Joy Luck Club and Mother Journeys "Beginning with Gussie," Maxine Kumin's short story from the anthology Mother Journeys, has a central issue similar to that in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club: the need for transference of stories from mother to daughter. These two works have quite a few similarities, despite the fact that they are tales about very different cultural traditions. Is the cultural difference important? Or do these works reflect a universal truth about story-telling
When I read “Making the Jam Without You” by Maxine Kumin, my initial thought was that the poem was simply about the mom making jam and wishing her daughter was there with her. As it states, “I am putting a dream in your head.” After reading through the poem a couple more times it started to make more sense to me, and I realised that it wasn't just about the mom missing her daughter, but about the mom sending a memory to her daughter of her childhood. The mom just wanted to remind her daughter of
Silence In Maxine Hong Kingston’s autobiographical piece “Silence”, she describes her inability to speak English when she was in grade school. Kindergarten was the birthplace of her silence because she was a Chinese girl attending an American school. She was very embarrassed of her inability, and when moments came up where she had to speak, “self-disgust” filled her day because of that squeaky voice she possessed (422). Kingston notes that she never talked to anyone at school for her first year
“A novel or a collection of short stories?'; may be a question that a critic asks about Rattlebone. Maxine Clair portrays both arguments with her energetic writing style. A blend of random comments and many unique phrases intermix with the intense plot. Writing like this gives the reader a more relaxed state and the book seems more alive and real. In answer to the critique question, Maxine Clair is writing a novel because of an abundant supply of foreshadowing, a collection of narrators, a recurrence
considered an example of multiculturalism. Another example would be the diversity in today's schools, and how some teachers choose to incorporate the different cultures of their students into a way in which the students can learn from each other. In Maxine Hairtston's essay "Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing", she writes about the idea of multiculturalism in the classroom, and the positive effect that it has on students. She stated how students could become better writers by learning about the
The Powerful Words of Amy Tan, Maxine Hairston, and Mike Rose The power of words is immeasurable. Words help people to voice their opinions and express their thoughts and feelings. Our everyday lives are shaped by communication and in general language. A persons language can often influence success and happiness. America is viewed as a melting pot for numerous different people and their respective languages. Language is so vital in our society that a person of diverse ethnic background can face
stories affect the stories with a flavor of their own personal character. In The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston utilizes stories told to her by her mother as a device to introduce readers to some aspect of her life. Kingston's mother pass down to her the wisdom she has acquired from her mistakes throughout her life along with best hopes and wishes. The Woman Warrior is a story about the life of Maxine Hong Kingston. It is easy to see her identity from those memorable occurrences that she mentions
Quest for Identity in Maxine Hong Kingston's Autobiography, The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston's autobiography, The Woman Warrior, features a young Chinese-American constantly searching for "an unusual bird" that would serve as her impeccable guide on her quest for individuality (49). Instead of the flawless guide she seeks, Kingston develops under the influence of other teachers who either seem more fallible or less realistic. Dependent upon their guidance, she grows under the influence
Maxine Hong Kingston's No Name Woman "A highly fictive text [whose non-fiction label gives] the appearance of being an actual representation of Asian American experience in the broader public sphere." (Gloria Chun, "The High Note") Such a disparaging remark about the misleading nature of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior has been readily refuted, notably by Leilani Nishime, who proposes in her essay "Engendering Genre..." that it is a text that transcends genre confines; it challenges
Maxine Hong Kingston and the Search for identity Maxine Hong Kingston is in search of herself. She tries to find herself as a woman in a man's world, as a Chinese in America, and, as a daughter instead of a son. In all her writings one can see her search for her identity. One can feel her rebellion to convention, her need to break the barriers of society, her desire to make a perfect world where everyone is treated as an equal. But most of all her writings depict her as a strong and proud woman
Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior - No Name Woman The excerpt, "No Name Woman", from Maxine Hong Kingston's book, Woman Warrior, gives insight into her life as a Chinese girl raised in America through a tragic story of her aunt's life, a young woman raised in a village in China in the early 1900s. The story shows the consequences beliefs, taught by parents, have on a child's life. Kingston attempts to figure out what role the teachings of her parents should have on her life, a similar attempt