Symbolism In Anne Sexton's 'Her Kind'

“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it is in hot water.” The imagery created by Eleanor Roosevelt emphasizes the emotional strength of a woman, which may often be overshadowed by her physical inferiority, as compared to her male counterpart. The hot water is a representation of the hostile or conflicting situation that women encounter on a daily basis. This would come in the form of emotional obstacles and mental tribulations, as they have to oppose many of society’s wishes before they can achieve their dreams. Although women may appear fragile, docile, and porous to the desires of men, their course of action as they overcome their adversity would prove their character to be strong, willful, and self-reliant. Authors Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, in “The England Nun,” and Nella Larsen, in “Sanctuary,” portray protagonists that exhibit characteristics of strong-will and independence that resist the social confinements of their time. In both cases, the protagonists have to overcome the obstacle that is classified as an internal conflict; therefore, their ultimate decision presents their strong mental

For a long period, those suffering from disorders were not given the most adequate treatments. In fact, it was believed that those with mental illnesses were possessed by demons or were accused of witchcraft because of their abnormal behavior (Comer, 2014). Later on new solutions for these illnesses rise. Those with mental disorders would either get operations called trephinations (Comer, 2014) or were locked away in a hospital, which is exactly what happened to the protagonist of this short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. However, the protagonist was not locked up away in a hospital, but she was locked up in a room in her house because of her husband, a physician, believed this would help “cure” her depression. Unfortunately, his treatment did not the way he expected. But recently, changes have been made, and breakthroughs in the cause and treatment of mental illness have been discovered. Unfortunately, these discoveries did not come soon enough for some. Luckily, psychologists have learned from the mistakes of doctors' treatments. Her husband diagnosed her with depression, therefore he should have encouraged her to go out and do activities she highly enjoys. It would have been great if he spent more time with her or surround her with her loved ones instead of having her

Anne Sexton was a junior-college dropout who, inspired by emotional distress, became a poet. She won the Pulitzer Prize as well as three honorary doctorates. Her poems usually dealt with intensely personal, often feminist, subject matter due to her tortured relationships with gender roles and the place of women in society. The movies, women’s magazines and even some women’s schools supported the notion that decent women took naturally to homemaking and mothering (Schulman). Like others of her generation, Sexton was frustrated by this fixed feminine role society was encouraging. Her poem “Cinderella” is an example of her views, and it also introduces a new topic of how out of touch with reality fairy tales often are. In “Cinderella”, Anne Sexton uses tone and symbolism to portray her attitude towards traditional gender roles and the unrealistic life of fairy tales.

Laurell K. Hamilton spoke in great words that, “there are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” Hamilton embodied a central state of mind of a person who is mentally ill. The wounds mentioned are those caused, and worsened, by traumatic events and public perception of a person with a mental illness. The women in the short stories that have been read embody an internal injury caused by an outward force. In “Story of an Hour”, “Rose for Emily”, and “Yellow Wallpaper” it is impactfully shown how traumatic life experiences can lead to and worsen mental illnesses.

Anne Sexton was a poet and a woman, but most importantly, she was an outcast. Subjected to nervous breakdowns and admitted to a neuropsychiatry hospital, Sexton must have been all too familiar with the staring eyes and the judging minds of the public. Just being a woman in today's world often can be enough to degrade a person in the public's eye, let alone being labeled as a crazy woman. But Anne Sexton did not let society remain unchallenged in its views. She voiced a different opinion of women through poetry. In Anne Sexton's "Her Kind" the speaker of the poem embraces society's negative stereotype of modern, liberated women and transforms it into a positive image. Two voices, the voice of

The life of Anne Sexton holds many mysteries, but she wrote many hints in her poetry to help solve these mysteries. Her poetry shows a deep understanding of the life of a depressed person that most people don’t normally like to talk about. It could be very helpful to anyone who struggles with their own

Everyone has a different way to deal with overwhelming situations. It can be more difficult for people with mental illness to cope with the hardships of life. For instance, in “Horses of the Night,” the character of Chris has dissociative symptoms that can be linked to his depression. Margaret Laurence’s short story tells the story of Chris, a young teenager who moves to from a small farm to the town of Manawaka in order to go to high school. The story is told by his younger cousin, Vanessa. As she grows up, she learns that Chris is depressed. The author uses the theme of fantasy to show that he does not cope well with reality. The horses, Shallow Creek, and the children are symbols that show us the fantasy that Chris lives in.

“A Sorrowful Woman” features a superficially simple narration style. “Now the days were too short. She was always busy,” Stylistically clipped, with a clear passive, detached, voice the narration style seems to be a banal, unimportant feature of the text. Yet the exact mendacity that prompts this description actually serves as a prerequisite to developing an understanding for the principal character’s mindset, and consequently the theme of the text. The last passage contains numerous examples of detached narration but the clearest occurs when “She was always busy. She woke with the first bird. Worked till the sun set. No time for hair brushing. Her fingers raced the hours.” The concise, third person narration in this segment allows the reader to experience the slightly off viewpoint of ‘the mother.’ Specifically, given the lack of motivation present through the text coupled with the concluding suicide it becomes evident in the text that ‘the mother’ is suffering from depression. Given the societal stigma surrounding mental illness authors generally face an uphill

Anne Sexton was a junior-college dropout who, inspired by emotional distress, became a poet. She won the Pulitzer Prize as well as three honorary doctorates. Her poems usually dealt with intensely personal, often feminist, subject matter due to her tortured relationships with gender roles and the place of women in society. The movies, women’s magazines and even some women’s schools supported the notion that decent women took naturally to homemaking and mothering (Schulman). Like others of her generation, Sexton was frustrated by this fixed feminine role society was encouraging. Her poem “Cinderella” is an example of her views, and it also introduces a new topic of how out of touch with reality fairy tales often are. In “Cinderella”, Anne Sexton uses tone and symbolism to portray her attitude towards traditional gender roles and the unrealistic life of fairy tales.

Many people deal with post-traumatic depression and it can have a huge impact on one’s life. In the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character, as well as the narrator, is an unnamed woman dealing with post-traumatic depression. The exceptionally imaginative protagonist’s metamorphosis is due to her isolated confinement in a room with “yellow wallpaper” in order for her to recover from depression. This type of treatment is prescribed by her physician and husband, John, whose controlling personality demands the main character to get bed rest in a secluded room and forbid her to participate in any creative

Throughout history, mental illness has been labeled as a defining deformity, that harnesses in its “victims,” into a box, parallel to the familiar “mime in a box” image. In a world where we glorify “normality,” a lack of illness, which by all means is a gift, the beauty of one mind takes away from the beauty of an outlier, even though, ironically people may not even recognize their differences. Hester, at a glance suffers from a literal scarlet letter, but an imprint on her brain may exist as well. Irrational actions, sudden emotional episodes, and destructive thoughts can only prevail for so long following sin; Hester’s persona has branches of self-defeating personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No one of her time, however, will bring the issue to light, Hester will be left known as the mistress, a witch, or “A,” rather than to explore her “complicated” condition. As decades pass, Hester’s state will remain, as the “A,” the mark of the stigma on mental illness today. When left neglected, society rejects the possibility that under a visible coating, mental deformities may lie; those who are divergent, who require affection more, are made subordinate, marginalized with no quest for a cure.

Society’s voice in this stanza suggests that witches like the speaker are evil and have no place in their idyllic world. The speaker mocks society’s opinion of her, by agreeing with it in

Michael Portaro "Her kind" by Anne Sexton When I read this poem by Anne sexton it feels like she is taking us, the audience, on a bleak walk down memory lane. If you do any research on her, her life resembles that of a female lead from the tv show Mad Men. Sexton was a model as a young woman, married early, and tried her hardest to be happy as a housewife. She quickly realized that a pretty little home in the 'burbs wasn't all it was cracked up to be. These experiences often show in her poetry which lays bare all of the ways that her life has been punctuated by mental illness and circumscribed by rigid definitions of what a woman "should" do or think or believe.

The poem “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton describes different scenarios of a woman. In the poem, Anne Sexton uses three different characters to explain that she has been each of them in some way. Society places a gender role on what women are allowed to be and how they should behave, condemning the women who do not conform, trying to change them into society’s perfect view of what a woman should be. While this poem shows the author describing herself in terms of the supernatural, it ultimately shows that rebellion against societal norms for women comes at a cost, sparking judgement from a society that sees women as common housewives. Her imagery in the poem represents how she is seen as a disfigured and

'The Abortion' by Anne Sexton is a first person narrative poem in the style of a stream of consciousness and conveys a woman's emotional and physical journey whilst undergoing an abortion. I intend to discuss how through the effective use of imagery, tone, symbolism and word choice the poet successfully builds up an atmosphere which adds to your appreciation of the poem.