Symbolism In Clifton's 'Homage To My Hip'

Especially powerful when it comes to writing. Is about the goodness and prospective of being a woman. Clifton emphasizes the positive aspects of womanhood. And when you love someone who is leaving wish for them to be safe.

Another literary device that Lucille Clifton used in the poem was the literary device of repetition. By using repetition, Lucille Clifton emphasized the size of the hips and their power. Throughout the poem the speaker repeatedly said,” These hips…, They want…, They need..., They do…, and They go…” An example of this was when the speaker said,” …these hips/ are free hips. / they don’t like to be held back. / (6-7). In this quote, the speaker was saying that she is free, and that people cannot stop her from doing what she wants. The speaker tried to show women that they should not let anything stop them from doing what they want and that they should

Both of these poems portray two views of individuals by society. The girl in The Barbie Doll was healthy and intelligent, yet everyone still focused on her fat legs and big nose. This led the girl to do as much as she could to please those around her. This outlook can be compared to how women are portrayed in our society today. As we, women, look through magazines we are greeted by tiny women with big chests. Some of us feel that this is the way all women should look. Those who feel this way will do all that they can do to look like these models. Many women in our society are anorexic and bulimic, could this be because of society's portrayal of women? I believe so.

Despite the achievements of women in many different fields, society still attempts to limit women to certain roles. Furthermore, in the poem, women “… are defined […] by what [they] never will be,” (lines 19 - 21); once again, the author claims that women are defined by what they are unable to do because of gender bias. Instead of being given the chance to be influential, they are continually limited to staying at home or doing jobs “meant for women.” Finally, Boland tells the tutor that women “…were never on the scene of crime,” (lines 27 - 28). This serves as a metaphor for how women are never allowed to do important jobs; instead, they are left at the sidelines due to the repeatedly ignored restrictions placed on women by our gender-biased society.

“Some women fear the fire, some women simply become it.” - R.H. Sin. During Colonial America, women weren’t as valued as in current day. In Colonial times, women worked around the house, didn’t have legals rights, some were wealthy and others were slaves and others lived in the city.

Slave women had the hardest role to play in Colonial American women. They started out having to do unskilled work, such as building a fence. Then later on, when slaves became more expensive, women were seen more equal to the slave men. They were then responsible to duties that men were. Women had to work long, hard hours, side by side with men, on plantations. Then, suddenly, the north started having them take care of domestic duties for the owner’s wife. Eventually Southern states caught on, once the wives of the

In both poems “Barbie Doll’ and “homage to my hips” the speakers focused on the same idea but had different ways of expressing those ideas. In the poem “Barbie Doll” written by Marge Piercy shows how a young girl is affected by the idea of a “perfect” body that society thinks a girl should have. A Barbie doll is a toy that young girls play with. Barbie is an unrealistic way of how a young girl should look and can ultimately lower one’s self-esteem. The company that makes Barbie decided that it would be beneficial for young girls to see the different body images one can have. On the other hand, in the poem “homage to my hips” the speaker Lucille Clifton is proud and appreciative of her hips. She is able to go against the standard norm of how society wants girls to look and gives her hips the importance that they are actual people themselves. Although “Barbie Doll” and “homage to my hips” have a similar theme while the poets used a different structure and literary devices to portray how society sees a young girls’ body image.

In “It’s a Woman's World,” Eavan Boland utilizes several literary techniques to reveal the poem’s complex conception of a “woman’s world.” Boland sheds light on the static nature of a woman’s role in society, which sparks their desire to overcome the societal limitations that is put upon them by men. Through her sarcastic title, use of personification, and critical tone, Boland is able to expose both genders stereotypical responsibilities and to convey society’s desire to silence women’s outrage against their role in this world.

Although there were many common factors within the institution of slavery for both men and women there were also circumstances that were unique to women. “The first slaves to be brought to the British colonies of North America were disproportionately male. Considered more valuable workers because of their strength, enslaved men performed labors that ranged from building houses to plowing fields. When the Dutch brought African and Creole women into New Amsterdam in the late 1620s, they did so not to supplement their workforce, but to provide company for their black male slaves” (Hallan, 2004). This tells us that from the beginning the African woman was less valuable and her treatment by the slave owners was a direct reflection of this.

The scene where Clifton is seen peddling the dancing dolls on the street is symbolic for both the narrator and Clifton. Clifton entertains the crowd by yelling “shake him, stretch him by the neck and set him down, – He’ll do the rest,” which only confirms to the white onlookers that they can control and manipulate the blacks to do as they demand (Ellison 432). Clifton’s puppeteering of the dolls is symbolic because the dolls make him feel a sense of authority and control in a way he never felt in the Brotherhood. Asserting his own controls of the doll is symbolic of his acceptance of his own black identity the Brotherhood

Women in the book The Death of Woman Wang, were not seen as equal, they were viewed as lesser human beings than men. Women did not have the same rights; they did not have any freedom really. In this era women were expected to get married, have kids, and stay home with the children. They did the cooking, cleaning, washed clothes, and taught their daughters to do the same thing. “When she was young she worked hard at her spinning, and even when she was old and had bad pains in her

Back when her narrative had been written and observed, slavery, like in her narrative, had been a huge factor in the resulting pain and anger she had gained. In her narrative, she had to deal with the fact that she was not only a woman, but a woman with no power, as did many women in contemporary society. In both society and her narrative, she illustrates a world in which white men are the most powerful and it affected many. The same intersection can be operated in today's society because, excluding slavery, racism and gender preference are still big issues today. Society today still acts like the white race is superior to others and that minority are to be feared or untrustworthy.

and Femininity. The poem is mainly about motherhood in a way as previously discussed. She

It is interesting how women's role has changed in society from generation to generation. For example, I have managed to graduate from college and accomplished things my mother was not able to do in her generation. My mother was very unfortunate, she only completed the third grade because her parents insisted that she did not need an education and that she should instead get a job. As a woman it was hard for me to attend college without my fathers support. My father is old fashion and felt that I as a woman did not need an education. I felt there was a need for me to get and education to be successful in life. In a speech title "Ain't I a Woman", Sojourner Truth gave before the Women's Right Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, a very powerful sheech about women's rights. She argued," I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman. I could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it- and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman?". I agree with Truth's argument that perhaps society and tradition has been the main factor that has shaped peoples mind to believe that women were not capable of doing the same jobs as men. The fact is that women were and

There is a distinct contrast between appearance and reality, which works to reinforce the idea of confining individualistic behaviours to retain the ‘pattern’ of society. In stanza two, she says that “tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes/ (there is) not a softness anywhere about (her)” (lines 16 and 17) when she’s wearing “only whalebone and brocade” (line 18.) The term ‘whalebone’ refers to a whalebone corset, which is a very hard material that is restrictive to movement. By describing her actions as ‘tripping,’ a modern day feminist reader is reinforced that she is not coping in her current lifestyle where she is limited to living in a strict manner. In the next stanza, she says that “underneath (her) stiffened gown/ Is the softness of a woman” (lines 32 and 33.) This develops the idea that the way she dresses is a deceiving appearance, because she is not as stiff and stable on the inside as she comes across on the outside. Deep down she is soft and sad, in mourning of the loss of her lover, yet she cannot express these emotions due to the expectations and restrictions of women during the Victorian era.