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Jennifer Luong

Block 4

April 20, 2010

William Blake, 'London'

In William Blakes poem 'London' he writes a poem to display how he sees the city of London. In the lines “And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace walls (11,12)” William Blake tries to convey how the soldiers were unwilling to fight in the war. The Soldiers of London thought it was unfair they had to fight in a war while the upper class did not. William Blake symbolisis the place walls was the upper class citizens of London. The citizens in the city are suppressed and exploited by those in authority and power.

He describes London and society as corrupt, weak, dark and troubled. It is overly controlled and everyone is suffering from all the poor conditions. This poet is set in an unpleasent tone. The tone was very angry about the new restrictions of the city and the people of England don't stand up and rebel. William Blake wants the reader to think of London as a place of restriction and bans.

We must not not that the 18th century was the time when the industrial revolution happened, and industrial revolution led to the growth of capitalism which led to the huge rift between the rich and the poor and that could be a reason causing London to be like that at that time. Blake's disappointment with the changes he has seen in his London.
This poem is about industrialised London and how it had become. 'Charter'd street' is an example of this. Chartered means to be given over to use of business/rent. Even though the poem was wrote years ago it reminds me about how it is now. There are so many rules laws bans and boundaries.

William Blake reflects on the poverty faced by the lower class of modern, industrialized London, and he can find no hope of consolation or the future. The oppressed lower class is forced to live William Blake uses sounds, symbolism, and an ironic twist of words in the last line that expresses Blake's ultimate belief in the hopelessness of the situation. The first stanza begins with the poet describing himself walking through the "charter'd" streets of the city near the "charter'd" Thames-every aspect of the city has been separated and organized by class.

Jennifer Luong

Block 4

April 20, 2010

Marge Piercy, 'Barbie Doll'

Marge Piercy's 'Barbie Doll' displays woman's suffering about her appearance. She explains, "So she cut off her nose and legs and offer them up"(17). This line shows how woman sacrifices their lives to look beautiful. The Barbie Doll symbolisis is the image of how a woman should look. In the beginning of the poem, the girl is givin a Barbie Doll. The author write this to show how impressionable young girls can be and continues to develop this idea thorughout the rest of the poem. The girl's personality starts to develop on what she recieves and seeing in her childhood. The girl sacrifices her life to look like a Barbie Doll which is impossible. This poor girl starts to suffer, and she develops an anxiety, depression, and self-concerned. She sees the image of a society that enforces woman should be embodied. Through the poe, the girl loses her self confident and becomes inferior and weak.

The poem shows that if we do not conform to our society we will be excluded and wont fit in. The only way to fix that would be to change the way we look so that we can accept ourselves as well as be accepted. We have to change ourselves to live a happy life. When young, beauty is not essential. However, when a young girl developes into puberty she is very self conscious about her looks and when someone frankly says that she is ugly, the girl will think that and will do anything to change that.

In line 6 it states the “Everyone saw a fat nose and thick legs.” Once she becomes a woman, it is then she preceives herself as ugly. Although she is strong and smart, none of these things are valued. Because beauty is ideal with young girls the fact of her womanhood was nothing without 'beauty' distoryed her. So she decided to choose beauty over her strength and health. The poem potrays that for woman it is thought better to die beautiful than to live non-beautiful. The message of the poem is that she is getting plastic surgery to please others. She would do anything to have the "ideal" beauty portrayed by the Barbie. Even if it means destroying herself.

The "casket displayed on satin" could not only be a symbol of the death and destruction caused by gender stereotypes, but it could also represent a giant Barbie packaging box. I believe it was written on purpose in this way so that the casket could have more than one meaning. Concluding that in a way, society's pressures either force women to conform or kill their selves in the process. Unless a woman doesn't conform, then in that case it is a social death in the eyes of society, even if the nonconformist doesn't see it that way. All in all, the sum is that society's idea of beauty is unrealistic and only causes pain no matter how you look at it. The word casket sticks out the most. She's not really in a casket or dead- she's getting some sort of cosmetic surgery to improve her looks. The speaker of the poem is relating that to death by using the word casket.

This poem has a pretty extreme outlook on the subject of perfection. I think the author is trying to say that the standards of how a woman should look are set impossibly high, and therefore many women have low self esteem and depression. The girl in the poem fatally hurts herself to live up to the expectations of the world. She cuts off her legs and nose and therefore, dies. This poem is a way too depressing and extremist for me.

Jennifer

Monday, April 19, 2010

Jennifer Luong

William Blake, 'London'

Jennifer Luong

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