A Comparison Between Elizabeth Bishop And James Wright

They argued that they were not immoral in their lifestyle and that their behavior was in fact far from destructive but, instead, was helping to work towards creating social equality. (“The New feminism of the 1920s”)

o Page 49 “…the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her..”

Most poems, new and old, almost always have an important message to teach to all those who take the time to read it. Authors use poetic devices to get their message across in creative, yet effective ways. For example, Mary Oliver carefully uses several poetic devices to teach her own personal message to her readers. Oliver’s use of the poem’s organization, diction, figurative language, and title aids in conveying the message of how small, yet vital oxygen is to all living and nonliving things in her poem, “Oxygen.”

He refers multiple times to fishing terms that the general audience may not be knowledgeable of such as “spinner” (“Once” para. 1), “hellgrammite” (“Once” para. 5), and “bass” (“Once” para. 5). These terms not only classify White as a fisherman but also suggest the importance or impact that fishing and the lake have on his life. By using logos in his writing, he gains credibility with his intended audience.

Two characters, Elisa Allen and Mary Teller, struggle with the idea of being accepted into the society of the 1930s. Women’s rights were not fully accepted in the 1930s, and these two characters were set in the common day view of men and women. In the 1930s, “[Society has] assigned to white women such roles as housewife, secretary, PTA chairman, and schoolteacher. Black women can now be schoolteachers, too, but they are most prominently assigned to such domestic roles as maid, cook, waitress, and babysitter” (Chisholm 123). These assigned roles have impacted women around the world, including the two characters in these short stories - “The Chrysanthemums” and “The White Quail”. Not being activists in women’s rights, these women conformed to society and lived their lives as any typical housewife in the 1930s. Their passions and choices during this time affected their way of living and relationships. The two stories reflect similarities of the women’s love for gardening and lonely marriages, but also reflect their different viewpoints on the world they live in.

The use of the imagery here allows the reader to take a closer look and see the beauty in the barnacle. “And underneath two or three, / rages of green weed hung down” (20-21). Colors are also used again when the speaker states “The dramatic reds and blacks” (30). Yet another line using color states “and the pink swim bladder” (32).Using color makes the parts of the fish pop out to the reader. The entire poem is filled with visual imagery, but there are also lines that give the reader auditory and sensory imagery as well.

Gourley, Catherine. “Chapter 1.” Flappers and the New American Woman: Perceptions of Women from 1918 through the 1920s, Twenty-First Century Books, Minneapolis, 2008.

As hardworking women living of the prairie, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters can relate to Mrs. Wright’s situation. They know personally that long days of doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning can become very tiresome (Hedges 91). They realize that living on the prairie can force a woman to be confined to her own house for weeks at a time, and because Mrs. Wright never had children, the grueling loneliness that she suffered must have been excruciating. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters both experience the constant patronization and sexual discrimination that most women in the early twentieth century lived with. They empathize with the difficulties of Mrs. Wright’s life and almost immediately a bond is formed with a woman they do not even know.

The fish is a major symbolism within the boy’s life. The fish is mainly an illustration of a lost friendship or love. “Once the boy had seen a huge fish jump up high in the pond’s center, though his father told him the pond held no fish,” (Crabtree 72). The fish is a representation of the young boy’s friendship. The young boy thinks that he has a friend or love, but his father tells him that there is no such thing as a true friend. Stating that the friendship has ended or that the friend has gone away, either due to moving or death. Crabtree then writes, “But the boy had seen one, and was watchful,” (Crabtree 72). The young boy waits for that friendship to come. He waits for that one person that can help him through the ups and downs of life. He has encountered that feeling of love and honesty but now is just waiting for that person to come

"Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another." This passage written in Black Boy, the autobiography of Richard Wright shows the disadvantages of Black people in the 1930's. A man of many words, Richard Wrights is the father of the modern

James Wright was born in Ohio on December 13,1927. While in high school Wright suffered a nervous breakdown and dropped out of school. A year later, he went back to school and got his high school diploma. Right after he got his diploma, he joined the army and got stationed in Japan during the American occupation. He got married to Martins Ferry who was from the same place he was. He died on March 25, 1980 at the age of 53 in New York City.

The theme of the story concentrates on women's suffrage. Mrs. Wright apparently has been pushed over the edge with the restrictions set on her life and one day she finally snaps. This implicit theme suggest

Elizabeth Bishop intimately brings readers in by her poetic techniques such as simile, repetition and alliteration, thus alluding to deeper meanings of knowledge and veneration. Although “The Fish” is a free verse, 76-line poem, it has internal form including the use of similes to describe the scene only moments in time. In total, 7 similes are used to describe the “tremendous fish” the speaker caught (line 1). For

Next, the speaker talks about the fish’s eyes, larger, shallower, and yellower than hers. The different pieces of fishing line caught in his jaw shows how many times he either escaped or was let go by the other fishers. Then the description of the rented boat, the parts of the boat that all turned into a rainbow.

After reading the poem, “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop, it seemed as if the poet attempted to convey to the idea of one bottling up and hiding their genuine feelings. Perhaps, the author is trying to express to her audience that while emotional restraint may be appropriate at times, it is vital for every individual to express the way they feel in order to alleviate themselves from the burden they may be carrying. At the start of the poem, it describes how the grandmother and child are reading jokes from the almanac on a rainy September evening. As they are reading the jokes, the poem states how the grandmother is “laughing and talking to hide her tears.” It is pretty clear that the grandmother is trying to conceal her true feelings from the