How the Characters in the Literal Works Suffer from Social Struggle and How It Is Revealed - Essay Example

Liberal Art Literature Affiliation Supervisors’ This work looks at how the characters in the some literal work suffer from social struggle and also how the social struggle is revealed in the literal work. By definition social struggle is the presence of conflict, tension, or antagonism that exists in a society, amongst people or organizations due to different competing interests and desires between people of different classes races and gender amongst others. Social struggles in societies have been believed to influence radical social changes. According to Milonakis & Fine (2009), social struggle is the core of any historical processes. Any kind of struggle is perceived as the engine of change in any social structure (Rummel, 1977). The work relied on the two literal works, “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden and “In the Waiting Room” by Elizabeth Bishop. The first poem “Funeral Blues” is about unknown speaker lamenting about the death of her lover. She draws the attention of everybody and wants the whole world to know about the death of her lover. She is worried that life would never be meaningful as it used to be when her lover was alive. The death of her lover has taken all her hope in life and socially struggles to accept the reality of the death. Everybody and everything around her including the nature and objects made by God no longer make sense for her. The writer does not introduce to the readers the name of her lover. This leaves many to guess who the lover is. She assumes that everyone is familiar with her lover; this could be deliberate for personal reasons. However this ought not to be the case since she has gone publicly announcing everywhere that one whom she loves is dead and that the whole world should mourn. The writer struggles with her private and public social life about the death of the husband. She chooses what to let the public know and conceals other aspects of her lover. The loss of her lover has resulted to the writer portraying different kinds of social struggles in this poem. In summary the writer struggles socially with animals, nature, unknown audience and birds of the air. The second poem by Elizabeth Bishop entitled “In the Waiting Room” is about the writer reporting her moments of realization of separations and the bonds among human beings and to the forces that shape individual identity through the inter-related recognitions of societies at barely 7years of age. The poem is written in past tense explaining how the writer has experienced social struggles and colonialism of the African women. The poem begins with the speaker, Elizabeth, sitting in the waiting room at the dentists office during winter times waiting for her aunt who went to visit a dentist. Since her aunt’s appointment with the dentist was taking longer than expected, she decides to keep herself busy by reading a magazine and perusing through the pictures hang over the wall and inside the magazine. Shortly her aunt’s cry at the dentist office compassionately induces her to crying unconsciously. Being at the dentistry at a young age barely 7 years makes her struggle with social settings and things around her. Elizabeth is left asking so many questions which no one could provide her with correct and convincing answers. The reading of the magazines by the writer exposes her to different aspects of social struggles, one from the African perspective and from where she lives. The naked women with wires around their neck display how African women are mistreated and abused. The social struggles for poverty come out clearly when the women are put on the magazines without clothes. The poem demonstrates social struggles in terms of racism, poverty and gender discrimination. The stylistic devices used to identify the social struggles and how the persona demonstrates the social struggle are symbolism, theme and settings. Symbolism in a poem is the ability of a poet to use objects or words to represent abstract ideas. An action, person, place, word, or object is used in a poem to give a symbolic meaning. A writer of a poem suggests a certain mood or emotion by using symbols. This stylistic device is meant to make the stories more interesting and to make meaning of issues being referred to deeper, understandable and conveys certain aspects of seriousness in a poem to captivate the reader’s attention. Objects like colors, rocks, time and animals amongst others can be used symbolically to refer to meanings of things. (http://www.chaparralpoets.org/devices.pdf) A theme similarly shows the whole concept or the idea or driving factor as to why a particular poem is written. It is the central idea of a poem which is sequentially developed throughout the poem. Sets of words or stylistic devices of a poem are used to deliberately pass the message or theme of a poem. The theme could also be suggested by the title of a poem or by section of a poem.  The last literary element to be used here is setting which is the location, time and the environment under which the poem is narrated. The first literal work is the poem “Funeral Blues” written by Auden. The poem illustrates how the writer is undergoing through a tough time due to the death of her lover. The speaker begins by saying that everyone should stop whatever business they are doing and get to know that her lover is dead. The speaker asks for quiet, she wants to stop communication, time to stop moving because the one whom she loved is dead. The animals especially the dogs of the neighbors should stop eating their juicy bone since her lover is no longer available. This is practically impossible because dogs are not human beings that can be silenced. There writer seems to have a problem with everybody and all things both in the space and on land. This attribute of the writer suggests that she believes that the death of the lover was planned and could be attributed to certain people or things. She portrays a social dis-order in the community since even the policeman who is in charge of the security of the nation is being addressed to mourn. The demonstration and public pronouncement by the writer that everybody to mourn would only be possible if the lover was a president or a state officer which according to the poem was not the case. This demonstrates the social struggle for space and recognition. The fact that the writer does not introduce to the readers the name of her lover leaves many to people to guess who the lover is. She could be hiding the identity of the dead man for private reasons. However this ought not to be the case since she has gone publicly announcing everywhere that one whom she loves is dead and that the whole world should mourn. The writer struggles with her private and public social life about the death. It is always a norm in any society that when a loved one passes away, the person bereaved is supposed to relax and be consoled and comforted by the relatives and mourners. Contrary to this, the one who has lost her loved ones dictates when people should mourn and when not to mourn, when the choir should sing and when not to sing. The airplanes and the birds of the air are commanded to write it in the air that her lover is passed. Not unless she owns all the birds and airplanes, it would be impossible for what she claims to happen. She says the coffin to be brought out for the mourners to come. She wants airplanes to write "He Is Dead" in conspicuous writings across the sky. She says that doves should wear white ribbons and that policemen should wear black gloves to commemorate the death. The writer also struggles socially with the nature. She does not want to see the stars, the moon, the sun, the ocean and or the forest. One would wonder how the writer expects objects like sun, moon, ocean that are under the control of God to be removed away not unless she is addressing specific gods that are omnipotent to undo these natural objects. Here the writer demonstrates her struggle with the nature. Ideally it is expected that the narration of poems about the death of loved ones is supposed to pass message of hope, love memories for the deceased and brighter future for tomorrow. The speaker is supposed to offer message of hope for the future with long memories for the deceased. There ought to be usually a small moment of optimism buried somewhere in them. However the writer has totally displayed hopelessness, dejection and life without meaning. This is the social struggle that the writer is battling with. She is convinced beyond doubt that there will never be life again for her. She is equal to her lover who has died and without life, In fact though not written but can be deduced from the poem that the writer wishes she also be buried with the dead lover. The main issues of social struggle is living a meaningless life without her lover, will things ever be good again. Her lover was everything to her and the death of her lover has in equal measure brought social death to her. The first literal element used to reveal social struggle in the first poem is symbolism. Under this the “public” has been used to draw the attention of everybody. Public here refers to everybody. The speaker puts everything in the public limelight. Maybe she is looking for sympathy from everyone for the man’s death. It is not clear whether the deceased is a famous man or not but the writer is socially struggling for the space and recognition of her loved one. From the poem she decides to conceal the identity of the deceased by not telling the public her relationship with the deceased. She just mentions my lover which is so ambiguous. It’s not clear whether whom she refers to her lover they were married or not. Perhaps her agony is so traumatizing that she demands the death be reflected in the entire space around him. Another aspect of symbolism is “nature” which has been symbolized using the Sun, moon, stars etc things which seems to be lovely and are source of life. The speaker does not want to relate with anything that seems to give life like the sun gives life to plants. This is so because her source of life has been cut off. The emotions about the loss of loved seems to have interfered with sense to appreciate nature. This is a great social struggle for her since her life and everything was in mortal beings. The writer does not know how to start viewing life in general given that her “life” no longer exists. To her she has reached a dead end, these are the social struggles the writer faces. For examples the writer says “The dead man was everything to him. Even times of the day, even midnight itself.” The writer says "put out" the stars, "pack up the moon and dismantle the sun." She wants every beautiful thing that nature provides to go away. The speaker says “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum”. She wants the drum of the funeral march to be heard by the mourners of the dead man. She is exaggerating things, it is not really possible to expect every dog in the world to stop barking just because a funeral is happening somewhere in the world. Symbolism here has been used to show exaggeration and how desperate the writer is socially. The social struggles here are even extended to animals like dogs of the world. In the second poem, “In the waiting room”, symbolism is used to bring out the phobia for a child at her age. For example “Blackness” is used here to describe people and things that are unknown and are different from the narrator. To the narrator, the unknown and different people or things are a little scary and horrifying. She equates black people with black things (volcanoes, waves) in the poem that scares her. The African women in the magazines she read are black African women and relating this puts her off from old women. Here the narrator experiences a social struggle of the black women against the people who are around her probably not Africans. She looks at the struggle black women are subjected and poverty and makes her worry whether she would also be the same when she grows up. Later she realises that she is the same as those she sees in the magazine. The “Naked Women” is used to symbolize gender discrimination. Elizabeth has a perception about naked black women that she sees in National Geographic. These naked women horrify her but cannot stop her reading on them. The narrator could be scared of the difference between herself and the naked women in the magazines that seems older and desperate. However Elizabeth sees herself the same as the naked women despite their differences. Her social worry and struggle is that when she grows older she would also be subjected to the same desperation and hopelessness. The women have coils around their necks, and Elizabeth says that they look like light bulbs. She also says that "their breasts were horrifying," She locates her fear in the specific body part. Breasts signify maturity or motherhood, this is her fear and struggle because of harassment mature women are subjected to. The ‘Cry ‘symbolizes pain in the poem. The narrator makes sense of her relationships with other people. She associates with the cry of the aunt and claims that they are brought together by circumstances of hopelessness and pain (Bishop& Ashbery, 2000). Symbolism as a literary element has been used specifically in both the poems to show how the writers struggle to associate or accepts the reality of certain social aspects of life in the society. For example the narrator of the first poem uses symbolism in certain instances to portray desperation, hopelessness and societal struggles. She narrates that nobody makes sense to her except her love. Death is natural thing and that no normal human being wishes his or her neighbor death. We don’t struggle with it when it knocks, we should accept the reality and moves on, yet the narrator seems to drag everybody in her desperation and struggles. All these and many other illustrations are show of social struggles. In the second poem symbolism also has been used to show the writers’ struggles to accept the realities of certain societal social aspects of life. For example Elizabeth, the narrator is hard pressed to accept the fact that African women suffer struggles, economically, socially and gender discrimination. She struggles with the fact that when she grows or mature to be a mother or adult she could also be subjected to the same harassment. This is manifested when “breasts” of the African women are used symbolically to show growth and maturity. It is just impossible to stop biological changes in a body of human being which the writer seems to want so. In both the two poems symbolism has been used to show naivety and lack of information and reality influenced by the social societal struggle they are exposed to. The second literal element used to reveal social struggle in the first poem is the theme. The "Funeral Blues" is the theme of the poem. This is a poem about death, which conveys the message of hopelessness, horrible and no good thing. The speaker has no single joy or hope due to the loss of her loved one. She is completely devastated; there are no happy endings, smiles or jubilations. The only assurance in the poem is death and lifelessness nothing else for the living. The theme of the poem is very sorrow and sad. It puts the writer into a sombre mood and state of despair which has resulted to her constant social struggles throughout the poem. There is no hope that can be expected in a funeral. For example she says, "Nothing now can ever come to any good." The fact that the poem is about "Funeral Blues" implies that expect nothing good but only death. The language and communication form part of theme that portrays social struggle by the writer. The narrator issues commands and unrealistic targets to unknown audience depicting state of desperation and social struggles with people. May be her commands could be about eulogy of her dead lover or maybe she is expressing her desires and wishes. The private telephone conversations which she directs to stop, public skywriting by the air planes and traffic police officers all are directed to form the theme of the poem which just shows the social struggle by the character. The “Funeral Blues" exposes several questions as to whether funeral and mourning should be private or public affair or both. The poem begins with a childlike tone and describes her surrounding setting. One of the themes around her is the loss of childhood innocence. The child’s search for identity is made ritual in her reading of the magazine. This brings a world of full of challenges and struggles. The narrator’s exposure to the real world is like she was undergoing rite of passage. Her inability to contain her feelings makes her lose identity. For example she says “How--I didnt know any world for it--how "unlikely". How had I come to be here, like them, and overhear a cry of pain that could have got loud and worse but hadnt?” Another theme in the poem is Women and Femininity. Elizabeth has great reaction to the naked women in the magazine. This may mean that Elizabeth is simply scared by the age differences between her and the women. For example "naked women with necks wound round and round with wire like the necks of light bulbs. Their breasts were horrifying. I read it right straight through. I was too shy to stop. And then I looked at the cover: the yellow margins, the date. Suddenly, from inside, came an oh! of pain”. This stanza shows gender discrimination and social struggles in the African set-up. Theme in these two poems portrays the social struggles at different times. The first poem talks about the social struggles at a present time and the second poem narrates the struggles during World War I. Both the themes about death and childhood innocence struggles are meant to send a message of desperation and hopelessness to the society and the readers. However in the second poem the narrator seems to accept the reality and struggles to with some of the societal challenges. The third literal element used to reveal social struggle in the first poem is the setting. The setting revolves around the funeral set-up. The setting of funeral set-up is so disturbing and hopelessness. The setting is not around a small church filled with love; setting is about the whole world about the funeral. The speaker wants that sadness to be reflected in everything—from the pigeons in the street to the stars in the sky, these forms the true setting of "Funeral Blues". In the second poem, the setting is at the dentists’ waiting room. The waiting room is full of adults, arctics and overcoats, lamps and magazines. She accompanied her aunt who had an appointment with her dentist. It is the winter of the year 1918 in the town of Worcester, Massachusetts. This is a small town located in remote area yet people still frequent such remotely uncommon places to source for hope and joy from the doctors which they do not find. Visiting the dentistry ought to solve a problem or an issue i.e pain and any kind of struggle. The narrator however describes the afternoon as dark during winter time; the room is small and full of adults. This darkness in the room implies the absence of hope and joy. This kind of setting puts the narrator to struggle socially and wonders why she found herself in a world full of hopelessness, desperation and struggles. This social struggle is even manifested better by the National Geographic magazine which displayed naked African women hopelessness, depicting the struggles for Africans women with issues of poverty, discrimination and lack of empowerment. The setting of the first poem is at funeral set up and second one is at the dentistry in a small waiting room with no better lights. In the first poem the narrator has spent a lot of time about the funeral and death of her lover. Why would someone draw much attention from the whole world just because one has died. There would be no good news from a funeral even if the attention of the most powerful personalities in the world is sought. All these are done to depict the writer sense of social struggle as a result of death. Both of the settings portray poverty, dejection, hopelessness and state of giving up in life. The reason why the writer decides to do the narration in a small remote town is to show the struggles people have when looking for medical resources. One would expect people to go look for medical resources in common clean towns. But due to poverty that the second poem displays the small resources are sought for even if they are far distance. The setting also in terms of time portrays social struggles since the room where the narrator is described as dark in an afternoon. Two reasons, either the room has no electricity or lighting systems to show abject poverty or under-development or the room has no ventilations or proper circulation of light. These kinds of settings are what the writer tries to socially struggle to relate with. The writer struggles socially due to poverty, under-development and lack of basic human needs. References Bishop,E & Ashbery,J. (2000). Poetry and the Sense of Panic: Critical Essays on Elizabeth Bishop and John Ashbery. In Kelly Lionel (ed.), Amsterdam: Rodopi. Milonakis, D & Fine, B. (2009). From Political Economy to Economics.Method, the social and the historical in the evolution of economic theorist. , New York, NY: Rutledge. Rummel, R.J. (1977).The understanding conflict and War. Conflict in Perspective .Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Read More