Collective Identity By Julia Watson

In the excerpt from A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf argues that women writers face unfair educational, financial and social disadvantages. Throughout the excerpt, she hopes to persuade readers that in a patriarchal society, a woman must have privacy and financial independence in order to fulfill her literary potential. To accomplish this goal, Woolf effectively appeals to logos, pathos and ethos; however, her emphasis on establishing credibility most successfully persuades her readers.

In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.

Opportunities for an individual to develop understanding of themselves stem from the experiences attained on their journey through life. The elements which contribute to life are explored throughout Gwen Harwood’s poems, At Mornington and Mother Who Gave Me Life, where the recollection of various events are presented as influences on the individual’s perception of the continuity of life. Both poems examine the connections between people and death in relation to personal connections with the persona’s father or mother. By encompassing aspects of human nature and life’s journey, Harwood addresses memories and relationships which contribute to one’s awareness of life.

The poem ‘Walking Away’, written by C Day Lewis – explores the themes of separation, love and change. The persona recollects the separation with his child, eighteen years later and hence reminisces an event which had transpired in the past. As the poem progresses, it creates a wistful mood and atmosphere as the persona focuses upon how the parting with his son impacted him gravely. Through this poem, the persona projects his own nostalgia by expressing the “person vs. person” conflict that his son was experiencing. Lewis incorporates figurative language, stylistic features, kinesthetic imagery, unusual word order and interesting diction to vividly convey the father’s feelings towards his son.

Hogan intentionally set the poem up in a way that would force the reader to learn about the speaker’s family, and how the speaker displayed each family member. By the end of the poem, Hogan gave the reader relief by giving them a detailed story about the history of the speaker’s heritage. The way the Hogan, allowed the speaker to interpret the speaker’s Grandmother’s story was in a way that would permit the reader to connect all the traits from each family member to create a full analysis on the speaker’s issues with her

Poets have the power to present their perspectives of the human experience through their poetic voice. Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, and Bruce Dawe, all Australian poets have all expressed common ideas expressed by their unique poetic voice.They also speak for those who have no voice, such as the soldiers in Bruce Dawe’s poem Homecoming and in Gwen Harwood's poem Mother Who Gave Me Life where she gives a voice to the Mothers. A key theme resinating through all of these poets poems would be their common ideas on society and the role of a mother.

Sylvia Plath and Gwen Harwood tell two very different stories of parental relationships, Mother Who Gave Me Life praising Harwood’s mother and speaking with love and affection, whereas Plath’s Daddy is full of hate for her father. These reflections on the poet’s parental relationships are made using imagery, symbolism and tone.

The search for identity is a seemingly difficult task. There are numerous challenges preventing many from discovering who they are. In Collier’s short story Marigolds, the author uses the narrator’s transformation to show that during stressful times, one's true identity is established. The narrator gives a description of her childhood in the exposition of the story. Lizabeth described her childhood as, “After our few chores around the tumbledown shanty, Joey and I were free to run wild in the sun with other children similarly situated. For the most part, those days are ill-defined in my memory, running together and coming like a fresh water-color painting left out in the rain” (Collier 24). Lizabeth recalls living a leisurely childhood in Maryland. The author’s use of characterization is significant because it gives the reader insight into the life of the narrator. Lizabeth frolics with the other kids in the neighborhood and has a relaxed life. Sometimes Lizabeth harasses Miss Lottie

In Gwen Harwood’s poetry, the changes in an individual’s perspective and attitudes towards situations, surroundings and, therefore transformations in themselves, are brought on by external influences, usually in the form of a person or an event. These changes are either results of a dramatic realisation, as seen with shattering of a child’s hopes in The Glass Jar, or a melancholy and gradual process, where a series of not so obvious discoveries produces similar reformation. An example of the later case would be Nightfall, the second section of Father and Child, where the persona refers to her forty years of life causing “maturation”. For the most part these changes are not narrated directly but are represented by using dynamic language

What provokes a person to write about his or her life? What motivates us to read it? Moreover, do men and women tell their life story in the same way? The answers may vary depending on the person who answers the questions. However, one may suggest a reader elects to read an autobiography because there is an interest. This interest allows the reader to draw from the narrator's experience and to gain understanding from the experience. When the reader involves him/herself in the experience, the reader encounters what is known and felt by the narrator. The encounter may provide the reader an opportunity to explore a

Knowing that Olds’ favorite topics to write about are sex and politics we can assume she’s speaking to the audience about her own personal experiences from ‘Last ‘Night’. Aside from the fact that the poem is in a first-person view point, in an interview with Heather Darcy we learn about Olds work and the things that inspire her. Darcy states, “In her work, she has unflinchingly explored the themes of sexual abuse, motherhood, and eroticism with a raw intensity.” Darcy also goes on to state, “Most of her poetry appears autobiographical and personal in nature, as the use of the first-person singular often implies, but Olds refuses to give details of her personal life, including information about her family. Many critics search her books, hoping to find some autobiographical truths, but Olds states that she tries to keep her life in two separate spheres, what she calls “the life of art and the life of life.” She defines her work as extremely personal; however, there are sparse biographical details available about her, so her work cannot strictly be called autobiographical.” Both Rios and Olds are speaking the poems to the audience, both are about their own experiences, but how they write

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

Another useful tool in analyzing a poem is to identify poetic devices, meter, and a rhyme scheme. Through her deft use of extended metaphor, Bradstreet weaves an intricate web of parallels between parent and author and between child and book--both relationships of creator to creation. This use of metaphor allows the reader to relate emotionally to Bradstreet’s situation. In line seven, we see the uses of litotes, “At thy return my blushing was not small,” to express the depth of her embarrassment. She also uses metonymy in line eight to express her pain more clearly, “My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.” The simile used in line nine stresses her objection to the published work, “I cast thee by as one unfit for light.” Then in line 19, the poetic device of consonance is used which provides emphasis on her warning, “In this array ‘mongst vulgars may’st thou roam.” In this poem, through the use of personification and apostrophe Bradstreet conveys her feelings and emotions. Anne Bradstreet ensures her poem’s success by linking the triumph and tragedy of authorship with the pain and pleasure of creating and nurturing human life. The meter used is

Woolf demonstrates how women writers have often failed in this because of our frustration and bitterness with a world that presented to us and our writing not welcome, or even indifference, but hostility (41). She makes it clear that if there is ever going to be a “Shakespeare’s sister,” we must---at least while we are writing---swallow that sense of having been wronged, for it stands as an impediment to our creativity. This is the mental freedom that women writers must attain.

Many female writers see themselves as advocates for other creative females to help find their voice as a woman. Although this may be true, writer Virginia Woolf made her life mission to help women find their voice as a writer, no gender attached. She believed women had the creativity and power to write, not better than men, but as equals. Yet throughout history, women have been neglected in a sense, and Woolf attempted to find them. In her essay, A Room of One’s Own, she focuses on what is meant by connecting the terms, women and fiction. Woolf divided this thought into three categories: what women are like throughout history, women and the fiction they write, and women and the fiction written about them. When one thinks of women and