ENG 3320
Welcome to my weekly dose of blog analysis for Modern American Literature
Imagine living in the days where women and other minorities were silenced. Or is that today? 2019? We still see minorities being silenced. However, we can see how much more difficult it was for these minorities to have a voice back in the 20th century, especially post-war.
Diving Into the Wreck shines a light on these silenced writers. We all now know what the cannon is. It is an aspect of “great books.” But what about these books are “great?” Oh, that’s right, white men. White men such as, Hemingway, Shakespeare, Twain, and Fitzgerald. These men had great influence on literature. These men wrote legendary and iconic books and novels. They help power within their era of literature. Hence why they are apart of the ‘cannon’. In today’s society, I believe we can come up with a modern literary canon that these feminist writers fought for. Women have a big impact in today’s society, and it is hard to believe how belittled their literature, along with other minorities, became. Our author of Diving Into the Wreck, Adrienne Rich brings light and awareness to background literature. Starting off her poem, she talks about the ‘book of myths.’ We know that the book of myths is writings from western civilization. The book of myths leads back into the literary canon. I won’t go back into a tangent on the canon, but again, this poem shows us the effects of the cannon. In the sense of diving, Rich is diving into the literary past. The wreck is a metaphor for lost writers (minority writers, non canon writers). Therefore, Rich is digging herself deep into the literary past. Rich uses a great use of word play. She draws a picture in the readers mind of this body of water being the literary past. I think Rich made awareness to the past and the canon that we as readers need to learn.
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Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath had a friendship. Not a typical, let's go hang out and gossip, type of friendship. These ladies had an interest in death. Specifically their own death. The only way they could communicate their feelings was through poetry.
Suicide is a big deal. Here you can find the suicide rates for the post-war era. These two poets confined their friendship through death. Death consumed their minds but it bonded the two ladies. In "Sylvia's Death" by Anne Sexton, Sexton repeats the it. The it is "our boy." We all know it really is not an actual human, but it is death. They treated death so casually. Anne Sexton wrote this specific poem as if she was trying to speak to her, now, dead friend, Sylvia Plath. She wrote this poem in an envious tone. She felt as if it was a competition to see who got to visit death first. Digging in deeper to Sexton's thoughts, I believe she is now upset that Sylvia is now dead and she has no one to lust on death with. "Thief -- how did you crawl into, crawl down alone into the death I wanted so badly and for so long," These lines show how envious and lonely Anne Sexton now feels without her friend, Sylvia. My only question is why did these two women want death so badly? Why were their lives so sad that death was the only thing that made them happy. I believe Anne wrote this poem, not for Sylvia, but for herself. She is almost ranting about Sylvia's death. This is not healthy to be so caught up with an ending. My question to my readers, would the tables be turned if Anne killed herself before Sylvia could kill herself? Do you think Sylvia would, too, write such an envious poem to her friend, Anne? Work Cited: "Sylvia's Death" (1963) by Anne Sexton |
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