2. Having read several of the cultural contexts for Plath in your text, explain how one best informs your reading and understanding of "Daddy". Whatever you come up with, consider this in your answer: many, if not most, readers attribute nearly all of Plath's work to her life. Confessional poetry, is, by nature, autobiographical (at least to some extent). However, while her life informs her poetry, you, as a reader, might not know much about her life as they read a poem ("Daddy" in particular). I find that students often look at the poem quite differently once they know some specifics about her life. How/why do you view it differently once you have a basic understanding of Plath's life?
3. What do you think Chopin is saying about marriage in "Desiree's Baby"? Keep in mind that, while you might think a question about marriage belongs in the "Romantic Love" section, the couple has a baby, and that baby's existence, and thus the existence of a "family" (nearly always imagined as three or more, being that most people's definition of a family requires children) is important here. Do you think Chopin is commenting on how a child affects/changes marriage? Why or why not?
4. Discuss point of view in "I Stand Here Ironing". Do you think the writer is a reliable narrator? Why/why not? Why do you think the narrator shares the "parts" of the story she does but not others?
5. Discuss the cultural construct of "mother" in our culture for the same story.How does the narrator fit into/reject this construct? How do others define her (most likely) in terms of this construct? How much do you think general society's view of motherhood and its expectations have colored the narrator's beliefs about her own mothering?
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Listen to Sylvia Plath herself reads "Daddy".
Interview with Sylvia Plath: Where she began as a poet; her themes (she wrote "confessional poetry", a genre which gained much steam and credibility because of Plath); she discusses poet Anne Sexton, to whom she relates personally (you must read Anne Sexton as some point, absolutely); poetry she most enjoys. . .
Lecture on "My Papa's Waltz": informative, thorough. You don't need to know that much about metrics for this course (we study these aspects of literature in an introduction to lit course, not so much here), but the commentary breaks down the poem in a way that, ultimately, creates clear understanding.
Tillie Olsen: speaks about the heart "in action"; Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and others on Olsen's contributions to a feminist view of writers and writing.
Just for fun:
Ryan Adams performs "Sylvia Plath" live (his song, not the poem).
A Timeline of Sylvia Plath in Original Photos
Listen to Lucille Clifton talk about her poetry and read her most famous: "Homage to My Hips" (which became two different songs). This poem comically highlights an almost rebellious approval of the author's ample body in a society that values tiny, not ample, when it comes to its women.
Listen to Sylvia Plath herself reads "Daddy".
Interview with Sylvia Plath: Where she began as a poet; her themes (she wrote "confessional poetry", a genre which gained much steam and credibility because of Plath); she discusses poet Anne Sexton, to whom she relates personally (you must read Anne Sexton as some point, absolutely); poetry she most enjoys. . .
Lecture on "My Papa's Waltz": informative, thorough. You don't need to know that much about metrics for this course (we study these aspects of literature in an introduction to lit course, not so much here), but the commentary breaks down the poem in a way that, ultimately, creates clear understanding.
Tillie Olsen: speaks about the heart "in action"; Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and others on Olsen's contributions to a feminist view of writers and writing.
Just for fun:
Ryan Adams performs "Sylvia Plath" live (his song, not the poem).
A Timeline of Sylvia Plath in Original Photos
Listen to Lucille Clifton talk about her poetry and read her most famous: "Homage to My Hips" (which became two different songs). This poem comically highlights an almost rebellious approval of the author's ample body in a society that values tiny, not ample, when it comes to its women.
Week 2 Question 4 -
ReplyDelete“I stand here ironing” is written by a mother on the hardships of raising her eldest daughter. The mother not only explains how hard it was to raise her daughter, but also the circumstances that led up to it. I think the narrator is reliable because the descriptions given to us by the mother are both sad and beautiful. You don’t feel bad for her, but you begin to understand how difficult it was for her, and for her daughter. The narrator seems to tell everything that she did wrong with her daughter, without holding anything back. This story seems to be told to make the narrator understand the circumstances surrounding her daughter and how she was raised, and the things she wishes could have been done better, without excusing her actions. The remorse she feel throughout about all the wrong things she did, all the times she tried to make things better lets the reader know how bad she feels. The joy you get from the narrator in the end over her daughter becoming “Someone” is really beautiful.
Week 2 Question 4
ReplyDeleteIn Tillie Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing the reader is presented with the story of a young girl raised in the harsh environment of single parent poverty. Olsen tells this story from the first person perspective. The narrator is Emily’s mother. The story concentrates on the narrator telling an authority figure at Emily’s school about her daughter’s upbringing. The narrator seams to have many excuses for the poor raising that her daughter received and appears to be an unreliable narrator. The narrator blames everything from the great depression to physical illness for her daughters troubles but mentions very little about her abject parenting. It is apparent that the narrator was much tougher on Emily than she was on the other children that came later as shown: “The old man living in the back once said in his gentle way: You should smile at Emily more when you look at her” (447) versus her description of her later children: “I think of our others in their three-, four-year-oldness—the explosions, the tempers, the denunciations, the demands—and I feel suddenly ill”. You can see from those passages that the children that were born after Emily got away with poor behavior while Emily did not. The narrator seams to soften the facts about Emily being taken by child services as well. She mentions that she was “persuaded” to send Emily to a convalescent home, but she is only allowed certain visitation days and must convince a social worker to let her have Emily back, which leaves the impression that Emily’s time in the home was court ordered. Olsen does a fantastic job of illustrating many of the issues plaguing the poorer elements of our society, and she does this by using an unreliable first person narrator thinking about how helpless she is.
Week 2 Question 3
ReplyDeleteKate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby tells the story of a family unable to withstand a family secret that comes to light. The story isn’t as much about marriage as it is about pride and intolerance. I don’t believe the author meant to tell a story about how a child affects a marriage; instead the story was designed to highlight the racial inequality of our nation’s past. Armand had fallen in love with Desiree after knowing her for many years. The birth of their child made him suddenly aware that the world would discover that he was of mixed race. In order to mask his societal defined flaw he placed the blame on Desiree, knowing that she could not trace her past, and shunned her publically. Armand’s pride in the end was far more important to him than the love that had made him so happy previously.
Week 2 Questin # 3. What do you think Chopin is saying about marriage in "Desiree's Baby"? Do you think Chopin is commenting on how a child affects/changes marriage? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI loved the way Kate Chopin leads us down one path and suddenly does a complete about face. Desiree has the questionable background and I followed right along, questioning if she really did come from that Texas family passing by all those years ago, Desiree being found near the big stone piller and dosn't it seem odd that Armand never has eyes for Desiree until he sees 'her one day against the stone pillar in whose shadow she had lain asleep 18 years ago'. This story tells us of the type of intolerance in our courtry at that time, even though there really is love between them, and I do believe that, because of the racial differeces Armand, does not have the time of day for his slaves so when he realizes his child is of dark skin because of his pride he abandons him and the mother (Desiree). Isn't it ironic while he is destroying all that is Desiree's he discovers a letter to his father hidden away many years before from his mother and this is where the story has the real twist he discovers his true history. How must he have felt now that Desiree is gone. It raises more questions; does he feel the guilt of deserting them & hating them so deeply from within, only to newly find out that in which he hated was there within himself; does he feel different in the way he treats his slaves now?