However, Rich does not title the poem "Aunt Jennifer's Ring." Rather, Rich uses the title "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" to offer a sense of hope, transformation, and overcoming. Patriarchy can be overcome with self-awareness. Aunt Jennifer is creating embroidery or other weaving technique, which is representative of traditional women's work. The image on Aunt Jennifer's wool is that of tigers who "prance" and "do not fear the men beneath the tree." The tigers are "proud and unafraid." Aunt Jennifer projects her ideal self onto her embroidery, whereas her real self is burdened by the "massive weight of Uncle's wedding band" that weighs her hand down as she sews. In "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," Rich creates a poem that is paradoxically filled with sorrow and human suffering as well as hope and transformation.
In "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," Adrienne Rich presents an image of universal suffering that shows that feminism is about human rights and not just about women's rights. In "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," Rich uses "concrete images" to "achieve both clarity of idea and fidelity to women's lives," (Emmitt 226). The poem is told in the first person singular, making it a poignantly personal poem. In this sense, "From an Atlas of the Difficult World" is different from "Aunt Jennifer's Ring." The poem in "From an Atlas of the Difficult World" is similar to "Diving into the Wreck" in that it is told from the first person perspective. In "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," Rich repeats the phrase, "I know you are reading this poem…" over and over to relate to the reader. Thus, the poem is not just about gender issues as some of the other Rich poems seem to be. The poem speaks to all of humanity, asking all readers to question their identities and roles. Even in "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" and in "Diving into the Wreck," Adrienne Rich is going beyond themes of feminism to explore a more universal human suffering that happens to have sexism as one of its symptoms.
"Adrienne Rich is one of the most important poets writing today, both for her style and her mission," (Emmitt 227). That mission is elucidating the causes of human suffering, and Rich locates...
Rich describes her envy of a barren woman. A barren woman can be a woman who can't have children or a woman who simply does not have children. It can mean that the woman has chosen not the have children. If the barren woman is someone who has chosen not to have children, Rich contends that she may regret not have children and such a regret is a luxurious
Gender in Fowles and McEwan [Woman] is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute -- she is the Other. -- Simone de Beauvoir. Simone de Beauvoir's influential analysis of gender difference as somehow implying gender deference -- that the mere fact of defining male in opposition to female somehow implies placing
Women struggles in EL The rights of women in society have always been a topic shrouded in a great deal of discussion. In many ways women are still struggling for equality within society and will likely continue to struggle for some years to come. The purpose of this discussion is to focus on how this theme of women's rights has informed English Literature and the manner in which it has been
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