Poems- Sound and Sense

Woman Work- pg 271; #200
     The poem itself tells of a female slave who only works for others with no time for herself. Through the first stanza there is a rhyme scheme, aa bb cc etc. This rhyming pattern makes the first stanza seem like a list; an example would be "The floor to mop/ The food to shop". It talks of everything a female slave must do. This gives the poem more meaning. There is a feeling of stress that eminates from reading this list, which ulimately connects to the fact that a woman has no time for herself.
      The next four stanzas have a natural theme. There is a repetition of weather specifically. " Shine on me , sunshine/ Rain on me, rain.....Storm, blow me from here....Fall gently, snowflakes". This creates a feel of calm. Slaves did not have their own space or time, but here nature is what she relishes. Nature is what is hers ,  and no one can take it away from here. Another point that in the poem is the "Cold icy kisses and/ Let me rest tonght". This is part of the snow stanza. "Icy kisses" could be death, winter is a notorious killer. Resting could also ultimately mean death.
     I believe the poem discusses the life of a slave woman, and the longing to be free . She sees the weather as an escape. Nature has different ways to ultimately help her in life. It is also a friend. She has nothing of her own but these natural occurances; nothing that belongs solely to her but this. It is the most important piece of her life.

A work of Artifice- pg 321; # 263
      First the bonsai tree is part of a metaphor for a girl child. The tree is being "pruned", ridding the child of any bad habitats. The child becomes "domestic and weak". The author writes ," With living creatures/ one must begin very early / to dwarf their growth". The authos goes on to list things such as "bound feet". They are all ways the girls can be made beautiful but useless.
     This leads to the fact that there is irony in the poem. This most obviously be seen in the list of  what to use to " dwarf  their growth". The line, " the crippled brains," is very ironic. It leads to the fac that the women are only allowed to think certain things or not allowed to thikg at all. The title is also ironic. An artifice is a work trickery. They make it seem like they are making the young girls beautiful, when truly they are keeping them from becoming anything great.
     I believe the poem is a little bit of social commentary. The bonsai tree is a part of asian culture, as is foot binding. Women in asia are kept in the dark. They are only allowed to believe what men tell them to. They are made "beautiful" by actions that hinder their full potential. It is unlikely tht they will ever be that eighty foot tall tree, and Piercy is bringing it to light through irony.

We- Commentary

I did not enjoy We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The characters were not deep at all. They had no true human emotion and there was no way to attach myself to the main character, D-503. However, when the math equations that plague the novel were stripped away, the basic elements of a tragic love story unfolded. I began to see the classic elements that make a up romance; a man falls for a woman and risks everything to have her. Of course, as a tragedy demands, the man and woman are separated in the end. This makes the story worth while to read, however it must be deciphered amongst the mathematical  nonsense that runs through the mind of a seemingly mad man. D-503 is an extremely shallow character, even as he begins to feel love. He is only skin deep in his emotions, as are the women in his life. They are nothing but ditzy people who feel almost nothing.

We- The Square root of -1

Throughout  We by Yevgeny Zamyatin the main character D-503 struggles to define the square root of negative one. This problem symbolizes his inability to define love. I-330 has brought love into his life yet he cannot place it. The square root of negative one is not perfect. It doesn't not simply breakdown, just as love does not simply fit into the categories of black or white. Love instead is the shade of gray in the middle. D-503 struggles with the discovery of where love fits into his life, which is perfectly organized. He has an equation for everything, except for love. This symbol is perfect to describe the suffering of D-503.

We- Passage Analysis

"I am looking at myself, at him, and I am absolutely certain that he, with his ruler-straight eyebrow, is a stranger, somebody else, I just met him for the first time in my life.  And I'm the real one. I AM NOT HIM. No. Period. That's all nonsense, all those stupid sensations...they're phantasms, they come from being poisoned yesterday. Poisoned with what , the swallow of green poison, or her?"(Zamyatin 59-60).
       The main character D-503 in We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, must face the problem of love throughout the novel. This "love" is not an emotion he can work into his system of equations. In this passage, D-503 sees himself as a human being for the first time. He's never seen himself in this light. He is experiencing the age old realization that love causes. He finds everything new. However, because he knows the feelings are from I-330, he dismisses them. He claims that they are from being "poisoned" . Of course he was not physically poisoning him, but rather poisoning his mind. She is creating ideas in his mind that are causing foggy thought and the inability to funtion normally. She is his poison.

The Handmaids Tale- Commentary

         The Handmaids Tale by Margret Atwood is a truly controversial book. The women are  treated poorly and given almost no rights, save for a few basic things. They have been placed into a  female hierarchy. Here is where Atwood stays true to life. All the women absolutely loathe each other, but I found it magnified to prove a point about extremism. Women in reality are very malevolent, and do gossip about each other often, but the women in Gilead are malicious. They call each other obscene names to out-loud and to their faces. The extreme view of women's' "catty"  behavior is impeccable.
        However, women aren't the only sex of human that Atwood magnifies. She also uses the behavior of men to makes her statement on extremism. The Commander is a perfect example of male behavior to the extreme. He is ignorant and boasts like an arrogant peacock. Since he isnt happy with his life, He thinks to endanger Offred's just to gain company. He isn't completely blind to the despondent mood of the females around him, yet takes the phrase "ignorance is bliss" to a whole new level. Men are also seen as the ones who feel the most sexual repression. Atwood shows just how terrible it can be for a man, magnifying the usual male need. She uses Jezebels wonderfully. The men have decided to create their own means of sexual alleviation, proving that an extreme society has flaws.
   I enjoyed reading The Handmaid's Tale because I could  relate to Offred. She felt and thought as a normal human being. Everyone goes through hardships and faces oppression through everyday life, though it may not be this extreme. Offred was a person to me. She was a friend that I allowed me to see into her life. I felt strongly  towards the oppression that she fought against and the way people treated her. Serena Joy's life was saddening to me. She becomes a bitter, shell of woman due to her own wants. The Commander angered me. He became a typical man to me. He brushed off many of the problems plaguing  the women of his society and allowed their suffering to continue though he may have been able to help them. I truly felt that the characters were real to me, and that made me want to read the book that much more.

The Handmaid's Tale- Passage Analysis

"Behind me I feel her presence, my ancestress, my double, turning in midair under the chandelier, in her costume of stars and feathers, a bird stoppped in flight, a woman made into an angel, waiting to be found. By me this time. How could I have believed I was alone in here ? There were always two of us. Get it over, she says. I'm tired of this melodrama, I'm tired of keeping silent. There's no one you can protect, your life has value to no one. I want it finished" ( Atwood 293).
       The character Offred in The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood, was not the first handmaid to be part of the Commander's household. She instead was to be the change. The woman here is the handmaid before. She has lived through the oppression, felt what the society of Gilead has had to offer, and ended herself. She wants Offred to stand up for herself. There should be no more hiding in the shadows. No more conforming. Instead Offred should trust herself. Stand up for oppression. This handmaid knows that Gilead is a lost society. They are blind to the meaning of what they themselves preach. Their happiness is fake and the men cheat. She believes Offred will make a difference. In truth it is offreds mind that is trying to convey the idea that she means nothing to the world and to end the darkness that the people of the society are imposing upon her by making her a handmiad, but by using this "guardian angel" type figure the author is trying to show empowerment. Offred must succeed in being the change or have been a waste to society.

Hadnmaids Tale - Serena Joy as a symbol

      In The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood, the character Serena Joy is an allusion to Tammy Fay Bakker.  Tammy Faye Bakker was a well known Evangelist who valued the wholesome old fashioned lifestyle. Serena Joy is the same way. She asks for a lifestyle rid of impurities, based on The Holy Word, and gets exactly that. However, instead of getting what she would thought would be a perfect life, she is thrust into a life full of misery. When comparing Serena Joy and Tammy Faye Bakker, there is the common element of an unfaithful husband. Mrs. Bakker's husband was caught in a multitude of sex scandals, while the Commander flits his time away with Jezebels. Although, there are handmaids it is best to think of them as an extension of the wives in this case, an extra working womb. 
       There are many Biblical allusions throughout the novel as well. Serena Joy and the other wives of Gilead all wear the color blue. They also are all mostly unable to have children and are instead the "mothers" of the handmaids. A woman from Biblical times that parallels with Serena Joy is Mary mother of Jesus. In the Catholic faith Mary is depicted as a woman wearing blue. She is also referred to as The Virgin Mary, a virgin being a woman who has not attempted to create a child . However, this is only a theory of a person who may be an explanation for some of the characteristics of Serena Joy. Another allusion that Serena Joy and the other wives may be connected to is the Biblical tale of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Rachel wanting a child to become Jacob's favorite wife, asks  for her husband to sleep with her maid while she watches. This is where "The Ceremony" originates from.The closest match to Serena Joy is Sarah the wife of Abraham, who offers her handmaid Hagar, in order for Abraham to bear a son. She then, however, becomes very jealous and angry with Hagar and has her thrown out into the desert. Sarah's attitude toward Hagar matches that of Serena Joy toward Offred almost exactly.     
       These are only a few explanations for Serena Joy and the wives. Serena Joy believes in old fashioned values that cause her life to be terribly unhappy. She goes through life watching her husband commit lecherous acts, yet  it is all her doing. The women become jealous and angry, spitefully smiling at one another. Looking at how frightfully ironic her life is connects her with those ironic people of reality who unintentionally spite themselves as well. She a symbol for the unhappiness a totalitarian society can bring, with her ungrateful attitude after receiving her wish.