Eavan Boland’s In a Time of Violence was an attempt to cast a light on violence while giving the victims an identity. As an Irish writer, Boland dealt with the idea of nationalistic politics, and her personal plight of being a mother in the suburbs. Her poem “Inscriptions” and “Child Of Our Time” were both written to give names and faces to the innocent deaths of children by political violence. In her essay “Subject Matters”, and interviews, Boland remarks on how she viewed the political poem and her ideas about motherhood. Boland uses her experiences as a mother to shape how In a Time of Violence expresses implications of violence upon society as a whole.
Eavan Boland uses In a Time of Violence to unite the unwritten history of Ireland, bound with the personal reflections of the poet herself. Throughout the book, her poems are written with an acute awareness of giving nameless victims of violence a face for the reader to engage. By combining the personal and political with the domestic, Boland uses imagery to evoke a perception of society’s ills rooted in the view of a women, and more specifically a mother.
Found in the first section titled Writing in a Time of Violence is the poem “Inscriptions.” Boland displays her desire to give innocent children an identity set against unspeakable acts of murder. In the opening stanza of “Inscriptions” Boland writes, “About holiday rooms there can be/a solid feel at first. Then as you go upstairs, /the air gets/a dry rustle of excitement” (Boland 16). Boland wants the reader to have the impression that children and childhood should be a time of innocence; by using words such as solid and excitement, the foundation of a child’s existence should be secure and safe. In the second stanza she...
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... Our Time”, much like “Inscriptions,” where she declares that society as a whole must learn and reshape a culture that nurtures children. The “broken images” in “Child of Our Time,” should be used to further secure the future for children, and not to further political gains.
In a Time of Violence Boland sets out to shatter the myths of violence, and the history that so often led to it. Boland viewed political violence as dehumanizing the victims, while glamorizing the political cause. Her way of interpreting the political poem was to give insight into the victim’s lives through the lens of her personal world. It is Boland’s intentions as described in “That the Science of Cartography is limited” to write a new history, a correct history for In a Time of Violence. Boland’s approach and insight as a mother reveals the qualities that she would have for a society.
This is displayed in lines one through five, as he expresses through imagery the bliss of a first chapter. Many examples of positive imagery is displayed when he says lines such as, “how even the banisters are polished for us, / that we feel free to walk out / with the lady of the house and smoke / a cigarette, down the grand alley of elms” (9-12). The fact that the poet enjoys the first chapter of a book helps develop a positive connotation towards the chapter, which helps contribute to the innocence of the first chapter. When readers relate this to their own life, they will think back at how joyous and buoyant their early life was. The first chapter and early childhood go hand-in-hand because they are both so simple. The first chapter is mostly the exposition, where you explain the time, place, and characters. Nothing that furthers the plot or suspense of the book is introduced in the first chapter. The poet institutes this simplicity by saying, “Nothing really happens now, / beyond the delivery of breakfast trays” (15-16). This can relate to one’s own childhood because no sense of responsibility is established. So, someone will be stuck being a kid with no worries of the outside world and no mature
...areness of unjustifiable conditions that are imposed on societies youngest and most powerless members. Intermingled with his convictions of the necessity for equality and justice are portraits of children who display a most astounding amount of hope and courage. It is an essential read for all who have plans to enter the field of education. Those of us who aspire to shape the minds of the future need to be aware that all children possess the ability to love and prosper despite whatever environment they have emerged from. It is our duty to provide all children, without regard to race or economic status, with the tools and opportunities they require in order to flourish and lead the satisfying lives that they so greatly desire and deserve.
Included within the anthology The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction,1[1] are the works of great Irish authors written from around three hundred years ago, until as recently as the last decade. Since one might expect to find in an anthology such as this only expressions and interpretations of Irish or European places, events or peoples, some included material could be quite surprising in its contrasting content. One such inclusion comes from the novel Black Robe,2[2] by Irish-born author Brian Moore. Leaving Ireland as a young man afforded Moore a chance to see a great deal of the world and in reflection afforded him a great diversity of setting and theme in his writings. And while his Black Robe may express little of Ireland itself, it expresses much of Moore in his exploration into evolving concepts of morality, faith, righteousness and the ever-changing human heart.
The world has experienced many changes in past generations, to the present. One of the very most important changes in life had to be the changes of children. Historians have worked a great deal on children’s lives in the past. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”- Author Unknown
A question that arises in almost any medium of art, be it music, film or literature, is whether or not the depiction of violence is merely gratuitous or whether it is a legitimate artistic expression. There can be no doubt that Michael Ondaatje's long poem The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a violent work, but certain factors should be kept in mind before passing it off as an attempt to shock and titillate; certainly, the poem does both of these, but they are not the primary purpose of the work. For one thing, social context needs to be considered; Billy lived in the "Wild West", a time associated with range wars, shoot-outs and great train robberies. The entire legend of Billy the Kid has been built around his criminal activities and notorious reputation; indeed, the more popular this myth becomes, the more people he is accused of having murdered. If anything, it was a cultural fascination with violence that "created" the legend, perhaps even more so than anything the "real" Billy ever did. Michael Ondaatje comments on this phenomenon and actually offers an alternative vision of who Billy the Kid was; perhaps he was not just a blood-thirsty killer but a man who, due to circumstance and human nature, was continually being pushed over the edge. Ondaatje is more concerned with the motivations behind the acts of violence than the acts of violence themselves: "A motive? some reasoning we can give to explain all this violence. Was there a source for all this? yup -" (54). If they shock, it is to shock the readers out of complicity and encourage them to think about the nature of violence and their own capacity for it.
Only through the eyes of the innocent will the world be seen as it is, not how it should be. So often we are driven by our desires to have the best and to be the best, that we lose sight of what we have become, of who we have become. Our main concern is the welfare of ourselves and that of our kin. As time progress and technology tests its limits, mankind will follow suit, however, where will we draw the line in losing touch with our humanity? In the short story written by George Saunders “The Semplica Girl Diaries”, it tells of a middle-class family of six in the near distant future that is making ends meet but strives to provide a more accommodating life whilst competing with a family that is well off. The story is told by the father as he
... lot of actions that show, as a society we have come along way, but we are still learning. There are still many cases of child abuse, but we now have knowledge and resources in place to intervene, and stop this abuse and neglect. Today, we have choices. Today, we can help, and protect. Today, we have child protection services. Because of all of this, today, we have the ability to, and the responsibility to keep our children safe.
Throughout the story, the different roles and expectations placed on men and women are given the spotlight, and the coming-of-age of two children is depicted in a way that can be related to by many women looking back on their own childhood. The narrator leaves behind her title of “child” and begins to take on a new role as a young, adolescent woman.
...ely with one another and lived in peace as partners, the ease of human transgression permits no romanticized view of this Agolden age.@ Finally B and this is a much more fragmentary conceptualization B the story refuses its hearers the luxury of demonizing, suppressing or repressing violence. Violence is not something that others do to us, but something we inflict upon others. The story consequently demands that we confront and internalize deeply the consequences of violence, and in this alone offers a profoundly important model of response.
Joyce Carol Oates was a true change in American Literature. She associated many novels that revealed political stances along with physical and psychological pain. (1) Joyce grew up in a rough neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. It was not uncommon for her to behold mistreatment, abuse, and gang violence; especially towards women. Detroit was a major political city were women’s rights were being fought. (2) Physical brawls broke out all over the city due to the uprising of women who wanted the same rights as men. (2) This uprising was called the Feminist Rights Movement. Women were mistreated and held unequal to men, they were not even allowed to be apart of any work force or vote. (7) organizations for women started to emerge all of the united States. (4) Joyce took experiences that she undertook and witnessed first hand and used them cleverly in her novels. (3) She accumulated her experiences in one of her most famous novels We Were the Mulvaney’s. (5) This novel refers to both physical and psychological pain among all the characters. Rape, death, abuse and how women were treated were all presented in this book. (5) Mrs. Mulvaney, the mother, always tended to her husbands needs, even if she disagreed with them. Mrs. Mulvaney had no say in any of the matters that arose. She even sent away her own daughter for the better of her husband.
In Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and in Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, both authors commentate on the romanticism of violence that is often associated with war. Because of this, the authors are able to dispel misconceptions surrounding war. Furthermore, the memoirs allow the authors reflect upon their own experiences of war during their childhoods, as well as examine how cultural shifts perpetuated by both war and the increased influence of western culture that took place within their cultures shaped who they became. Through their memoirs, the authors portray the reality of war and violence through cultural experiences.
In the beginning a picture is painted of poor dirty women with many children in tow, begging for scraps of food. Being told that this is her only purpose in life. Her children, should they survive, will grow to be no better becoming thieves, traitors for the “Pretender in Spain”(Swift, 2013), or sold off as slaves. Swift uses the word “melancholy” to describe the browbeaten condition of Ireland. (This is a perfect exampl...
" Moral and Physical Force: The Language of Violence in Irish Nationalism." Journal of British Studies 27 (1988): 150- 189. 23 Sept. 2003 <http://www.jstor.org>
Swift introduces “melancholy” and the two common perceptions of women and children begging in the streets of Ireland. The author appeals to the general opinion that the women are “forced to employ all their time” in begging and panhandling for food, and the children will gr...
Violence appears in many different shapes and forms and in some cases; it is hard to escape violence. As unfortunate as it sounds, everywhere we turn, all around the world, there is a footprint of violence in our society, in our workplace and in our home. There are many homes where parents beat each other and beat their children. There are many places where people are verbally and physically abused by others. There are also many places where racism reigns and people are hurt and violated because of their skin color, religion or gender. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the author does not only talk about violence, she also shows us how a person confuses love with violence.