Summary Of Replica By Mary Ruefle

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.

The author’s style of writing is straightforward and to the point and the novel is unique because it is written through the different perspectives of the four main characters. The switching of perspectives throughout the book is what made the book so hard to put down. I could see, compare and contrast how the characters themselves feel about the situation. As this goes on, the reader can comprehend the characters’ personalities better and their view on the other characters. If this story was written from just one point of view, one wouldn’t be able to figure out each character’s thoughts and perception of people around them.

The confessional mode of poetry delves into the inner struggles of the persona as she seeks creative independence, free from the constraints of her role as mother and daughter. The juxtaposition between the two settings, “the lit house and the town,” symbolises the persona’s desire for isolation as she contemplates her filial responsibilities relative to an innate desire for solitude, “wanting to be myself alone.” Dobson’s biblical allusion to Peter’s betrayal of Jesus in “Three times I took that lonely stretch,/ Three times the dark trees closed me round” utilises anaphora to indicate her prolonged attempts to embrace her creative potential. Writing in a period of social and gender re-evaluation during the 1960s, Dobson gives us insight into the way women were struggling to balance career against the patriarchal expectations of motherhood. The night, free from daily pressures metaphorically “absolves me of my bonds” creating a lighter sense of being, which is reinforced in the synecdoche “only my footsteps held the ground.” However, the use of conduplicatio in “One life behind and one before” represents her feeling of entrapment, as he remains in a conflicted state. The emotive language in “cut off… from love that grows about the bone” captures the confronting nature of her discovery by examining the

This simile is a representation of the egocentric attitude of the poet, as the birth of her child is simply a reminder of her disintegrating life. While Wright and Plath both convey views on the beginning life, Wright focuses on how it is natural and beautiful, while Plath considers birth to be a burden. After birth follows life, as expressed by Dickenson and Wright.

The use of simile in the last stanza ‘matchstick hands as pale as the violet stems they lived among’ is used to compare a frog to violet flowers, which are very delicate and easily broken. The innocence of childhood is painted through this visual technique as the narrator only sees the frogs being very delicate, but to the readers the simile also creates a vivid image of the condition of the ‘Frogs’/ the French. The use of first person helps to create a reminiscent tone about the narrator’s experiences, and further helps to stress the ideas of childhood innocence and the influence of war on children because the poem is written from a child’s perspective. The use of enjambment generates a conversational and personal tone, emphasizing to the readers the reality of the themes discussed throughout the poem. The use of symbolism of frogs as pets and also representing the French highlights the idea that adults saw ‘Frogs’ as insignificant or unworthy to speak about, whereas the children could not understand this adult thought, and they placed exemplary regard to the wellbeing of the

One of the things about the book that I personally liked was the characters, some of them were easy to relate to, even if you couldn't you could relate someone you knew with them. For example, David is not one of the main characters from the story but the more you learn about him, the more you realize how ambitious he is, wanted to change his career path almost every week, standing up to Mr. Neck. I think he's one of the things that helped Melinda find her voice.

Another thing that I liked about the book is that at the beginning, the wake/vigil/funeral was so accurately described. Funerals are awkward, tiring, and numbing. Meursault

She knows exactly how to keep you hooked and wanting to read more. For instance, in the beginning of the book where she sees her mother digging through the trash and just goes home leaving you wondering why she was digging in the trash in the first place. Another character that she leaves you wondering about is her dad. He is so smart but when he gets wasted on alcohol he becomes this violent person who throws things around threatening to hurt people. By making these characters come to life, Jeannette keeps you locked on the novel and hungry for more.

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

I, personally, loved the author's writing, although I did not really understand why she structured the book like so. With each chapter changing different perspectives and stories, it was kind of hard to remember which chapter went with another considering the chapters where out of order. With each story, I was a little annoyed that they just suddenly ended at the end of the chapter. It made me want to read more and more trying to find the next chapter that went with that person's story. It was also kind of difficult to connect the stories. Other than that, she did a marvelous job grabbing my attention. I loved the analogies that she included in the stories. For example, on page 216- 217, one of the mothers told her daughter about a turtle that eats her tears and then creates birds that laugh

His diction let’s you sense the carelessness and monotony of the characters lives. This style of writing shows the reader that the worth and value of the individual is not

Mary is wearing a large, dark blue robe that rests upon the floor as she kneels. A portion of it is suspended onto the stand from which she reads a book. The book’s pages are opened in an unrealistic manner, with a few pages seemingly stuck in one position. What little of her figure that is visible is oddly proportioned, with a plump

her far from herself. In one line in the poem she brings us starkly into the world of a

For a first novel, the prose was lovely, and the mystery and alienation came through in the story that always danced over and across a line of fantasy, leaving multiple avenues to interpret parts of the story. It was intangible as ice or snow in the sun, melting and reforming.

An analysis of poems discussing the different ideas of infancy and what infancy and childhood means to different people. The ideas of infancy vary across the poems from being a curse to the family to being a blessing from the heavens or even a key to break out of the boundaries set by reality. The poets use various literary devices such as metaphors, similes and different poem structure to convey the message that they carry. Each poem has its own viewpoint on infancy. On the whole four of the poems, “Infant Joy” –William Blake, “You’re” – Sylvia Plath, “Once upon a time” – Gabriel Okara and “Piano” by D.H. Lawrence all have a more positive view towards infancy whereas, “ Infant Sorrow” – William Blake and “Prayer before birth” – Louis MacNeice show a more pessimistic side towards infancy. Despite the fact that each poem has its own different point of view on the subject of infancy, they all seem to share one thought which is the fact that infancy represents innocence and in some cases a fresh start.