"My Son, My Executioner" by Donald Hall page367

Symbolism is a crucial element in Donald Hall’s poem My Son, My Executioner. This poems main focus is on a child entering the world and in a sense taking the parents life. Once a child is born the parent must sacrifice quite a bit and give up their old life, so that they are able to focus on caring for their baby. One line reads “Your cries and hungers document our bodily decay” this is symbolic of parents giving up themselves so their child can be happy and healthy. It is demanding to devote yourself to your child and make them the most important thing in your life. The entire poem is full of symbols of the challenging job of caring for a baby and once a child enters the world your life is now dedicated to them and all you have ,you give to them. In stanza one it says “Quiet and small and just astir, and whom my body warms” symbolic of the parents physical obligation to the child. The parent must provide the child with everything they need and that wares down the parent this job is demanding. This poem is a pessimistic outlook on parenthood, for it is saying that symbolically the new life of a child is the parents death.

Hall’s poem also contains quite a bit of irony, including the overall message of the poem. In stanza two line one says “Sweet death, small son, our instrument of immortality” this contains two elements of irony. The first being “sweet death” for death to most people is far from sweet, and one must search for the poems meaning to understand this quote. Hall is really saying that death is sweet, for after a lifetime of giving up your life to another being, death becomes life, and the place where you are no longer sacrificing for another person, “instrument of immortality”. The parent is forced to give life, and in a sense die for their child and death offers more life to someone who is in a sense not living their own life anymore, where everything that is yours becomes your child’s including yourself. This may seem untrue, however, it is just exaggerated to make the point that being a parent is very difficult and it takes your life, while demanding a great deal from you. Now if one observes the title, “My Son, My Executioner” this seems very ironic, for a child is supposed to be a symbol of new life but here it is a symbol of death, setting the general feeling of the poem to be ironic. The irony can be found all throughout this poem and is even present in the overall meaning, that parenthood is in many ways the death of the parent as an individual.

"My Son, My Executioner" is based solely on the idea that once a individual becomes a parent, they are not living their own life, but rather they are giving all they have to their child. One line says "whom my body warms" meaning that the parent is providing the child with all they need, constantly taking from the parent. Hall exaggerates by speaking of death as a way to regain the life the parent lost when they had a child, but he is simply saying that when the parent dies they will no longer have to share all they have with their child. This poem offers a bleak outlook on becoming a parent, and really only describes the sacrifice and demanding aspects of parenthood. I felt that this poem's main point is to show the hardships and devotion that comes along with becoming a parent and bringing a new life into the world. Although this poem is a bit pessimistic, I found it beautiful, for it describes the hardships that accompany parenthood. All the sacrifices a parent must make represent the love for the child, and willingness to give the child all they need or want.

Emily Dickinson's "I like a look of Agony" page 356

Emily Dickinson’s poem, I like a look of Agony, encompasses imagery while describing death and pain. Dickinson’s careful word choice creates a picture of pain by using words such as, Throe and Convulsion, painting a scene of hurt. Her word choice is very important in conveying the right feeling of Anguish itself, and thus holding true to the title. In the second stanza Dickinson writes “The eyes glaze once—“, in other words death, a very disturbing image but one very relatable to anyone who has lost a family member or friend. When the reader relates to this very upsetting image, they are able to understand the feeling of the poem and grasp the objective of the author. These unpleasant images are essential when reading this poem, for one must feel the pain within the words to truly appreciate the poem. “Beads upon the Forehead” and “homely Anguish strung” are also used in the second stanza, which leaves the reader feeling forlorn and able to imagine the scene of anguish being described to them. There is a great deal of importance placed on the use of imagery in this poem, for without it the reader would not fully comprehend the meaning of this poem.

Irony is an essential literary device in any one of Emily Dickinson’s poems and in, I like a look of Agony, it is an absolutely critical element. The imagery used in this work creates a depressing picture and evokes a very sad feeling, which is contradicted by Dickinson’s title I like a look of Agony. Dickinson’s image sounds absolutely dreadful and incapable of being liked, but when the poems meaning is understood it is clear that Dickinson is really writing that she likes how agony is one emotion that is always genuine. Dickinson’s use of irony in this poem is exceptionally clever in the way she finds something likeable in agony while contradicting herself with a truth, that agony is never fake.

I felt that I like a look of Agony was a very clever and interesting poem. I found it remarkable the way Dickinson contradicts herself while still making sense, and shocking the reader with her irony. This poem is really about the way many emotions can be fake and not genuine, but agony is one that is never false. The last two lines say “The Beads upon the Forehead By homely Anguish strung” meaning the look on a one’s face after witnessing death is not pretend, it is true and it is the anguish of seeing a loved one die. Dickinson is saying that specific look cannot be fabricated, “because I know it’s true” as Dickinson said. Agony is something that is seen on one’s face after tragedy and Dickinson likes that it is always true and real unlike many emotions that can be easily faked.

The Handmaid's Tale

The author of the Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, creates a world where women are oppressed by the Commanders and the Aunts and brainwashed into thinking that in exchange for giving up all personal liberties, they gain protection. The problem with this solution is, the violence the women are being shielded from happens to be occurring, only now it is legal. The commanders are legally allowed to have sex with the Handmaids in a uncomfortable ritual that is no where near consensual but not quite rape, this is explained in a quote on page 94. "I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for." Although the Handmaid's are well aware of what goes on in their world, they are far from happy about it. The Handmaids do what most would do when placed in an uncontrollable situation, they accept it. The women of this world are told that it is honorable to have children this way, in a ritual void of love or emotion all the while the wife of the Commander is in the room holding the Handmaid. Many of the women find a way to cope with this, and realize that if they want to have children, this is their only option. This touches upon the fact that humans have an instinctual need to fulfill certain biological needs, like women having children. They will do whatever it takes to reach this goal, it is sad that this is the answer to the problems the world once had. The leaders just created a new set of problems ands and helped no one. The are also made to feel proud to reproduce and do their duty to humanity, and that is all it is, a duty. For a woman is not even allowed to keep her child and must give it up to the Commander's wife. Their society has perverted the relationship between man and woman and also mother and child, by stripping it of love and tenderness. The leaders have even twisted the words of the bible to give the illusion that this society is just following the path of God. The same problems this world has tried to fix have become the fundamental rules and ideas that they now live by. The entire society is hypocritical, it is trying to save the women from violence but they take away the women's choice, voice, and sexual freedom, which ironically were the same causes they fought for. Trying to radically change the world to be safe for women backfired and left the women caged and "Protected" from their own free will. Atwood is trying to prove the point that radical groups who try to find a grand solution to the problems of the world often resort back to the original problems that they were trying to abolish and end up doing more bad than good. This also points to that fact that anything radical or completely one way is not a solution, although the world prior to this had its problems creating a world opposite of this will not solve everything. This novel leaves us with the question which is more important; the ability to decide and fail or never choosing at all.

We

The novel We written by Yevgeny Zamyatin deals with the complex relationship between D-503 and the wild and mysterious I-330. I-330, a woman with a rather vague background and life, begins meeting with D-503 and seduces him into falling in "love" with her. All the while that D-503 is becoming attracted to I-330, she is only using the poor man for her own personal gain and for her secret organization, who are trying to gain access to the Integral which D-503 is building. The real question is, was D-503 really in love with I-330 or was it just infatuation. I believe that is was not real love and even he knew it. During the time that I-330 began visiting with D-503, he said he hated her only became obsessed with her after she started their sexual relationship. D-503 was never given the opportunity to experience real raw emotion and was most likely confused with the difference between love and lust. I do not believe you can base a loving relationship purely on lust, and his feelings for I-330 are only excitement for he knows she is dangerous. D-503 is naive and not aware that she is just simply using him and is affected by this in the end. Their love is not true and on page 225 D-503 says, "They brought in that woman. She was supposed to give her testimony in my presence. The woman was stubbornly silent and kept smiling. I noticed that she had sharp, very white teeth, and that this was very beautiful." This is to show that D-503 never really knew her, only her body and beauty, which is the only memory of her he can conjure up. Had their love been real he would have remembered her by name and not have used a more disconnected words "woman" and "her". In the end of the novel D-503 is worse off than when he met I-330 and this is proving the terrible effects of toxic love on a person, unhealthy relationships can really destroy one's emotional state and have horrible repercussions. D-503 by the end is in a disillusioned state of mind and is once again living in his false reality, only now he is even more confused, just like once a person leaves a bad relationship.
I think the novel We as a whole was an interesting read. I liked the complex relationship between D-503 and I-330, and reading about D-503's struggle to find emotion.

Anthem

Anthem, written by Any Rand, is a novel supposedly about the human struggle for individuality and the need for a strong sense of identity. While this novel does deal very well with the main character's struggle for self, the female character is completely forgotten. The male character, Equality 7-2521, seizes his chance for freedom from the group but the female, or Golden One as Equality calls her, is never given an opportunity to achieve independence. For example, all of the women are peasants and are not given he chance to go to school or be put in a place of high honor like the men are. When Equality has to run away into the uncharted forest after showing the House of Scholars his light, Golden One follows him. He was not going to go back for her had she not followed his footprints. Once they find the house of glass in the woods Equality beings reading the books he finds and decides to call himself Prometheus and she listens and calls him that, then he chooses her name to be Gaea and she once again obeys without question. Why is it that the male chooses her name and she just obeys? The female communtiy deserves free choice on an equal level with men and should not just follow and listen. This is incredibly unequal and does not in any way promote self expression. This book is gender bias and not fair to women who are never given true freedom. I was curious as to why a woman would write a novel where the men are in control so I researched her biography. I found that Ayn Rand was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia during the time of communism and later moved to America. This made more sense to me, perhaps Rand's writing about personal freedom was already a stretch and the idea of personal freedom was a bigger issue to her when compared to feminism.

My favorite quote from this novel was on page 72. "Our brothers! You are right. Let the will of the Council be done upon our body. We do not care. But the light? What will you do with the light?" I liked this quote because it demonstrates human love. When a person truely loves another they only wish for that person to be safe and is willing to give up their life to save the other person. Althogh Equality was not trying to save a person, but rather a light, it is almost like the practice for when he is with the Golden One. He is learning to be a man in our society, first he wishs for a place of his own (the tunnel), then to have the ability to create ( the light) and now he is learning to love. I thought it was interesting to read Equality make the change from a part of the crowd to an individual and I think this quote shows that.

I liked this novel and thought it was a short and easy read. I like the message about personal freedom and the power of the individual, but I really disliked the male dominance aspect. I think that the novel would have been better, had the woman come into her own and learn to make decisions for herself rather than follow the man she loved. Perhaps this is also demonstrating the roles in male female relationships, where the power is never equal. One person is always more dominant and maybe Golden One loves Equality enough not to care that he is the dominant one. I do not agree with the male power in this book but I do think the novel was an interesting read.