"Daystar" by Rita Dove
I think this poem describes how alone and depressed a mother is and how worthless or nonexistent she feels. The line
"the pinched armor of a vanished cricket," stood out to me because I think it exemplifies her feeling of only being a shell, everyone sees her as just a mother, she's nothing. I reacted because I loved the description of the cricket and how she chose to observe the crickets that had vanished instead of a bird or something living. I also thought she might be comparing herself to the cricket because there used to be something in her that she feels she lost like the vanished cricket.
"A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin
I especially liked the part in the story where Mrs. Sommers goes to a restaurant to eat by herself. Usually when people eat by themselves in public they feel embarrassed or ashamed to be eating alone. Mrs. Sommers only didn't want to be noticed because of her appearance not because she was ashamed of eating alone. I love how she ordered a good meal and the part where she tipped the waiter "and left an extra coin on his tray, whereupon he bowed before her as before a princess of royal blood" made me laugh because just the slightest gestures made her feel royal and special. It shows how busy and unappreciated she must feel most of the time and how confident and happy a day of shopping and going out can make her feel.
"Why I Want a Wife" by Judy Syfers
This poem made me think about how a lot of the chores of a wife are still some what expected from a woman today. It made me think of how unequal relationships can be and how a man feels like he can have full reign over what his wife does while he can do whatever he pleases and his wife has to appreciate it. The lines that stood out most to me were "If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one. Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life; my wife will take the children and be solely responsible for them so that I am left free." This line made me so mad because not only is so much expected of the wife, but at the end of the day if her husband wants to leave her, she should be expected to be okay with that and have the weight of supporting a family dumped on her. Just that a person would consider leaving their present wife for a new wife and considered it to be okay infuriated me and it's so evil and backstabbing after all the work that the wife does and makes me wonder why the person would marry in the first place. It seems like in this poem, wanting a wife is close to like wanting a slave.
4 comments:
I noticed the part in "Silk Stockings" where Mrs. Sommer's was eating lunch alone too. I took it as nobody noticed her because by that time, she had bought enough things and dressed herself up to the point where she just fit in with them. So not being noticed was a good thing.
I too really liked the part of "A Pair of Silk Stockings" where she eats alone and tips the waiter. It made me laugh too how she wanted to look "higher" then she is. She wanted to fit in with the upper class, and she did.
What you said about the poem, "Daystar" was really interesting to me. I took the poem in a totally different life. I just saw an exhausted mother who looked forward to an hour everyday where she could be alone and have some time to herself, we all can relate to that. I didnt really get the image that she felt worthless. Just that she enjoyed a break from it all every once in awhile, like most mothers do.
I really liked your explanation of the image of the crickets from Daystar. When I was reading that text I was trying to figure out what that cricket could of represented and I think that you explained it perfectly. She did choose to focus on that nonliving cricket instead of a bird or something alive and well. She very well could have been trying to compare herself to that cricket.
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