Biography of Mary McLeod Bethune

Biography of Mary McLeod Bethune Mary McLeod Bethune spent her life educating and working to earn human rights for African Americans. She was an educator, advocator, leader, and humanitarian that dedicated many years to equality and the uplift of African-Americans lifestyles. She felt that education and access to knowledge was the only way to battle adversities that were crippling the black community. Bethune took on and accomplished many great tasks as an African-American woman in hopes of proving that one person can make a powerful positive impact on society. She was born on July 10, 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina to Samuel and Patsy McLeod. Mary McLeod was the fifteenth of seventeen children. Both her parents had been slaves, but after emancipation they acquired land and began instilling vital attributes within their children. As a child Mary worked the cotton field, witnessed her parents provide religious and food services to others, and helped her mother with the laundry that she did for local white people. One day Bethune had an experience that would motivate her to become an educated African-American woman. While delivering the laundry with her mother to a white employer Mary McLeod picked up a book the customers granddaughter lashed out telling her to put the book down because blacks could not read (Bolden, 1998, p.94). Historian John Hope Franklin said, education was the greatest single opportunity to escape the indignities and proscriptions of an oppressive white south (Bolden, 1998, p.95). The pain young Mary felt on that day inspired her to take an interest in education and provoked the need to overcome oppression. Mary attended a local Presbyterian missionary school during her early years. Around the age of twelve Mary McLeod received a scholarship to attend Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina. Merry Chrissman, a Quaker, wanted to give a promising student a chance at continuing education by paying their tuition for a year. Emma Wilson, Marys teacher from the missionary school, choose her as the recipient (Wilds, 2004, p.24-25).At Scotia, Mary McLeod had her first educational experience with white people. According to Wright (1999, p.9) Mary stated the following in regards to education at Scotia it: broadened my horizon and gave me my first intellectual contacts with white people, for the school had a mixed faculty. The white teachers taught that the color of a persons skin has nothing to do with his brains, and that color, caste, or class distinctions are an evil thing. Seven years later Mary McLeod Bethune graduated from Scotia. Years at the Christian school had reinforced her faith and Mary decided that she wanted to be a missionary in Africa. Mary began attending the Moody Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, in Chicago. At Moody Mary was the only African-American student, but this time helped her realize that black and white people could live and work together with objectivity (Johnson-Miller, 1998). Marys requests to be a mission were denied by the institution (Bolden, 1998, p.98). Reasons behind this decision by the institute were that there were no openings for Negro missionaries in Africa (Wright, 1999, p. 5). Mary describes this as the greatest disappointment in my life (Wilds, 2004, p. 26). Mary prevailed over this disappointment and decided that instead of teaching Africans she would begin working with African-Americans. So under the instruction of Lucy Laney Mary McLeod started teaching at Haines Institute, in Augusta, Georgia. During this time Mary McLeod and Lucy Laney were dedicated to supporting the derelict children in this low-income community. Other black communities that Mary traveled to and taught in were Sumpter, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Palatka, Florida. In Palataka, Florida McLeod organized the Mission Sabbath School for the poorest children. (Hine, Brown, Terborg-Penn, 1992, p.114). Mary McLeod met Albertus Bethune during her time at the Presbyterians Kendall Institute in Sumter, South Carolina. They married in 1898, and had one child Albert McLeod Bethune (Hine et.al, 1992, p.114). Their marriage was not jovial, and the Bethunes separated in 1907. Albertus Bethune died in 1918. While advancing blacks Mary did not incorporate marriage and fa mily often, they were secondary institutions. Her failed marriage may have been the reason behind this. Albert McLeod Bethune never finished college and was unsuccessful at several jobs. In 1920 he had a son, Albert McLeod Bethune Jr., which Mary adored. She adopted him and reared him, Albert McLeod Bethune Jr. went on to get a Masters Degree in Library Sciences and worked as a librarian in Daytona beach at the institution his grandmother founded (Hine et.al, 1992, p. 114). Many blacks were heading to Floridas east coast to do railroad construction, so Bethune followed with aspirations of opening a school in the area. The conditions of the blacks in Daytona stunned her. She recalled, hundreds of Negroes had gathered in Florida for construction work. I found there dense ignorance and meager educational facilities, racial prejudice of the most violent type crime and violence (Wright, 1999, p.7) Bethune knew that this was the place to began making a change. On October 3, 1904 Bethune founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. She modeled her school after her alma mater, Scotia Seminary. According to Jessie Carney Smith (2001, p.68) Mary stated that she started the school with five little girls, a dollar and a half and faith in God. The early days were quite difficult; Mary McLeod begged for rudiments and gathered dry goods boxes for benches. However with help from Daytonas black leaders and influential white men and wo men the school excelled. In 1905, it was chartered as the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Scholars. Stressing religion and industrial education the students were active participants in the production and handling of food to meet needs and provide income to the school. There were many volunteers and less regular teachers, who were paid from fifteen to twenty dollars a month with board included (Wright, 1999, p.7). Her plan for the school was to have the girls educated on how to upkeep the home, which would include sewing and cooking so they would have skills to be hired as a maid, cook, dressmaker and above all a teacher. Financial assistance was low but a creative Bethune explored many avenues to gain aid. She organized a choir that gave concerts in churches and hotels to bring in money. Bethune became familiar with important businessmen such as, Thomas White, John D. Rockefeller, Henry J. Kaiser and James M. Gamble, though these financial undertakings. These men took notice in Bethune and her school, provided funding, and eventually formed her board of trustees (Wright, 1999, p.8). The institute continued to expand as Bethune advocated for her students and the necessity for blacks to have access to the same levels of education as whites. She wanted to prevent limitation and offer blacks a chance at becoming productive members of society. In 1923 the Daytona Institute merged with the coeducational Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, Florida (Smith, 2001, p.68). Combined they became known as Bethune-Cookman College (BCC). The unification could not have come at a better time. With the onset of the Great Depression Bethune might have not been able to weather the storm along, but as a determined woman she did take necessary precautions to keep the school running; such as cancelling athletic and social affairs, slashing salaries and cutting courses (Hine et.al, 1992, p.116). She believed that Bethune-Cookman College was the only option that many blacks had to attend college, and if the white colleges could make it through the depression she knew her school could as well. In 1942 Bethune-Cookman became a four year college, but the school never lost sight of Bethunes founding principle of combining religion, vocational program, and academia. Bethune had accomplished an amazing task by starting with a school for destitute youth but in the end cultivating a senior college. Mary McLeod Bethune was seeking to make change during a time of great oppression and she faced great resistance to social change by many whites around here in the southern states. Nothing deferred her from her dream of educating and improving the lives of black women. Despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan she led a successful black voter registration drive. She wanted her students and other black women to rise above barriers placed on them by society (Sicherman et.al, 1980, p.77). She established herself as a strong black woman and did not let the Jim Crow laws or persistence of whites to keep blacks in low-end jobs slow her down. Establishing a school was the foundation of Bethunes prominence in the womens club movement. From 1917-1924 Bethune served as the president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women. As president of this organization Bethune was faced with three main issues World War I (WWI), female enfranchisement , and rehabilitative services for delinquent black girls. In response to Americas entry into WWI Bethune promoted canning and preserving food, making articles for soldiers and their families, and assisting the Red Cross. In accord with the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution voter rolls became open to women in Daytona. Despite the Ku Klux Klans attempt to sway and impede Bethune organized and registered herself, her entire faculty and staff, and other local black women (Hine et.al, 1992, p.118). Continuing with her legacy of offering chances to young women Bethune began to tackle the issue of a rehabilitative environment for delinquent black girls. Black female juvenile delinquents w ere placed in prison with adult lawbreakers, because there was not a facility that was for unruly black female youth. However there was a facility for white juvenile delinquent youth, the Industrial School in Ocala. In response to this the Florida Federation of Colored Womens Clubs launched an alternative facility for up to twelve residents in Ocala (Hine et.al, 1992, 118). Bethune opened the new Industrial School on September 20, 1921. This facility was directly funded by Bethune and a financial campaign until the late 20s when the state finally began funding this facility. Florida had been funding the Industrial School for white juvenile delinquents since 1913(Hine et.al, 1992, 118). Bethune believed that these young girls needed direction that they were not getting in the state prison in Raiford. She developed this facility in attempt to continue reducing unfairness and inequality that black women endured from systems in America. While heading the Florida Federation of Colored Wo mens Clubs Bethune founded the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women in 1920. Through this organization Bethune created relationships with open-minded white women for common welfare (Hine et.al, 1992, p.118).Contributing leadership for the womens general committee of the regional Commission on Interracial Cooperation was a great feat for the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women (Hine et.al, 1992, .118). Bethunes presence, values, and drive were unavoidable when she became president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). According to Sicherman et.al (1980 p.78) reaching presidency of the NACW was the highest office that a black woman at this time could aspire to reach. NACW was the premier black womens organization. Bethune benefited directly from working with the NACWs white counterpart the General Foundation of Womens Clubs. During her presidency of this association Bethune used her girls school as a base for NACW civic and charitable work (Hine, 1992, p117). As president of the NACW, Bethune worked intensely on projecting a positive image of black women to whites. She wanted to create roles for black women in both national and international arenas, she stated to her members, we must make this national body of colored women a significant link between the peoples of color throughout the world (Smith, 2001, p.70). Bethunes statement showed how advanced and limitless her thinking was as an activist. She wanted black women to understand that any goal was attainable. Bethune enhanced this organization by revising the constitution, improving their periodical, National Notes, and exemplifying great communication. The organizations first fixed headquarters was established in Washington, D.C. under Bethune (Sicherman et.al, 1980, p.78). The NACW was the first all-black organization operating in the nations capital with other white national organizations. Working with the NACW had halted Bethunes focus on black womens presence in national affairs. Bethune wanted black women to play a tangible role in the legislative process involving individual and family survival. Bethune felt the best way to reach this point was to establish an organization that encompassed all existing national womens organizations (Hine, 1992, p.120). NACW continuously declined her emphasis upon a cohesive body. Realizing that NACW was deeply involved in local issues, and did not grasp her hopes for black women on a national level Bethune fashioned her own vision. In December of 1935 Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). NCNW united major national black womens association (Sichermen, 1980, p.80). In Bethunes fourteen year presidency she focused the councils activities on segregation and discrimination, on cultivation of international relationships, and on national liberal causes. Increasing the membership Bethune made chapters of NCNW in majo r cities. By the end of her term Bethune had developed a council that included twenty-two national womens organizations, academic sororities, Christian denominational societies, fraternal associations, auxiliaries, and eighty-two local councils (Hine, 1992, p.120). She also established headquarters for the NCNW in Washington, DC., employed a full-time staff, and initiated the Aframerican Womens Journal. With the NCNW Bethune brought visibility to black women in the nations capital, through the Conference on Governmental Cooperation in the Approach to the Problems of Negro Women and Children. During these conferences sixty-five women of African descent met with the government employees to discuss incorporating black females into social bureaucracies. In 1941 the War Department accepted NCNW as a member of its womens advisory council (Hine et.al, 1992, p.120). Acceptance by the War Department allowed organized black women to participate in government programs. This accomplishment gave the NCNW more leeway in endorsing federal employment, effective enfranchisement, anti-lynching, and internationalism. Bethune fought to diminish racist practices and gender prejudices through conferences, petitions, and civil service reform. The NCNW took a commanding stand on women in the military. Their goal was reached in all services in 1949 when the womens Marine Corps admitted a black applicant (Hine et.al, 1992, p.120). Bethunes inner workings with the Franklin Roosevelt Administration helped her rise the NCNW to great heights. Mary McLeod Bethune met Eleanor Roosevelt at a luncheon at Franklin Delano Roosevelts mothers house. They became allies forming a bond that would work to improve Blacks opportunities on a national level. Eleanor Roosevelt advocated on behalf of blacks and Bethune to her husband and other politicians many times. During the Depression the Black community felt like it was being ignored within the national relief plan the FDR was implementing. According to Wright (1999 p. 10) The Negro press told Eleanor that the only way the Negro is going to get fair treatment is for the government to see to it that a strong, capable Negrois appointed to get things moving in the right direction for Negro relief. Bethune was that strong and capable Negro, so Roosevelt asked her to accept an appointment on the advisory board of the National Youth Administration. NYA was established in 1935 to aid young people ages sixteen to twenty- four during the Great Depression (Smith, 2001, p.70). This was the first post filled by a black woman in the history of the United States. Bethune and her staff educated millions of underprivileged children and she enrolled 600,000 students in the classes NYA was offering in her first year. When Roosevelt created the office of Division of Negro Affairs of the NYA he made Bethune the director (Wright, 1999, p.10). With this position through the New Deal Bethune continued to resolve disagreements between her white colleges and black constituents. According to Smith (2001, p. 71) Bethune brought great assets to this position her charismatic personality, platform style, insight into race relations, abilities to influence people, and well known reputation. In attempt to pool the individual talents of all the Blacks in Roosevelt administration Bethune created the Black Cabinet. The Black Cabinet offered an esteemed Black presence in politics at the capital, and coordinated government programs for Blacks. Bethune saw that Blacks were included in all new progra ms that the NYA offered. The Civilian Pilot Training Program included six black colleges offering flight instruction. Their programs laid the foundation for black pilots in the military (Hine et.al, 1992, p.125). Bethune left government when the NYA was eradicated in 1944, but she never ended her fight for the black race. She fought discrimination within the armed forces, serving as a Special Civilian Assistant to the war department. Bethune served as a US delegate and she represented the NAACP at the first meeting of the United Nations. She was also on President Trumans Committee for National Defense (Wright, 1999, p.12) n her late seventies Bethune returned to her cottage on the Bethune-Cookman campus. She died at the age of 79 from a heart attack on May 18, 1955 (Smith, 2001, p.72). Mary McLeod Bethune was an eminent leader that served on many councils and boards in addition to the organizations that she had initiated; President of the National Association of Teachers in Colored schools, vice president of the Commission on Interracial Operation, and president of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Her advocation was important to the National Urban League, Southern Conferences for Human Welfare and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Sicherman et.al, 1980 p.78).Bethunes lifelong dedication to Christian faith and social services left a legacy of spiritual and social transformation. Her school that began as a rented cottage with five students but grew to become a senior college, Bethune-Cookman College, is the only historically Black college founded by a Black woman that continues to thrive today. Bethune inspired and became a role model for her students as she battled not only the issue of race but gender as well. B ethune had learned in her days at Scotia Seminary that whites and blacks could work together, often serving as the only Black woman in many committees the unequal distribution of Blacks in policy making arenas only inspired Bethune to continue encouraging Black women to reach new heights. Never halted by others disproval or lack of support Bethunes goal were limitless for Black women. She went from a little girl in Mayesville to a powerful advisor of President Roosevelt during the Depression and President Truman. Holding positions such as the Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the NYA and presidency in the NCNW allowed Bethune to speak of the injustices that Blacks faced in employment, enfranchisement, social welfare policies, and education. She led many women out of jobs of servitude and introduced them to education. Bethune knew that education was essential it was the only way to improve the state of the black community. Bethune labored for equality during an era when there was no national concern regarding the lower status and conditions of blacks. References Bolden, Tonya. (1998). And Not Afraid To Dare: The Stories of Ten African-American Woman (pp.91-101). Scholastic Paperbacks Bostch, Carol Sears. (2002). Mary McLeod Bethune http://www.usca.edu/aasc/bethune.htm Hine, Darlene Clark, Brown, Elsa Barkley Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn (1992). Black Women in America (pp.113-128).Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press Holt, Rackham, (1964). Mary McLeod Bethune A Biography. Garden city, NY, 23 Johnson-Miller, Beverly. (1998). Mary Bethune. http://www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/view.cfm?n=mary_bethune Sicherman, Barbara, Green, Carol Hud, Kantrov, Ilene, Walker, Harriet. (1980). Notable American Women the Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary (pp.76-80). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Smith, Jessie Carney. (2001). Black Heroes (pp. 66-72). Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press Wilds, Mary. (2004). I Dare Not Fail: Notable African American Women Educators (pp. 24-24). Greensboro, NC: Avisson Press, Incorporated Wright, R Brian (1999, April 27). The Idealistic Realist: Mary McLeod Bethune, The National Council of Negro Women and The National Youth Administration (pp.1-12).Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia

Metternich’s Political Confession of Faith Essay

Prince Klemens von Metternich was the leading personality during the Congress of Vienna which sought to restore Europe back to the status quo, undoing the â€Å"disorder† caused by Napoleon. Besides being instrumental in â€Å"cleaning up Napoleon’s mess,† Metternich was a conservative at heart and saw the â€Å"damage† the French Revolution had brought to France and how Napoleon tried to import the legacy of the French Revolution, as well as the Enlightenment, to the rest of the lands in Europe he conquered and the subsequent effects thereafter. Metternich wrote â€Å"Political Confession of Faith† which he addressed to Russian Tsar Alexander I as a â€Å"secret† memorandum in 1820. This also came at a time when there were similar revolutions, led by liberals in parts of Spain, Italy and Germany. This document revealed Metternich’s sentiments about the emerging trend in Europe – the rise of liberalism. For Metternich, this was a trend that was a major area of concern not only for him but for the rest of Europe. He had singled out France for being the â€Å"cradle of the Enlightenment† when he said: â€Å"France had the misfortune to produce the greatest number of these men. It is in her midst that religion and all that she holds sacred, that morality and authority, and all connected with them, have been attacked with a steady and systematic animosity, and it is there that the weapon of ridicule has been used with the most ease and success. Drag through the mud the name of God and the powers instituted by His divine decrees, and the revolution will be prepared! Speak of a social contract, and the revolution is accomplished! † A staunch conservative monarchist, He saw what the French Revolution, whose leaders were imbued with Enlightenment ideas toppled the monarchy which they regarded as obsolete and irrelevant owing to its inability to care for its people, did to French society. For the French people, they no longer recognized the Divine Right of kings and instead saw it from a different prism – King Louis XVI did not live up to the â€Å"social contract† and in doing so, lost his legitimacy to rule and when Louis tried to stifle their rights, they took drastic action that led to his overthrow. What happened next was something that made Metternich concerned – the Reign of Terror which saw what Metternich noticed as a spree of persecution with reckless abandon of those said to be colluding with the old regime. Not only was Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, executed, but several others who had no connection with them, including members of the clergy were also persecuted or sent to the guillotine. He deplored Napoleon for making quite a mess of European society: â€Å"Nevertheless the revolutionary seed had penetrated into every country and spread more or less. It was greatly developed under the regime of the military despotism of Bonaparte. His conquests displaced a number of laws, institutions, and customs; broke through bonds sacred among all nations, strong enough to resist time itself; which is more than can be said of certain benefits conferred by these innovators. From these perturbations it followed that the revolutionary spirit could in Germany, Italy, and later on in Spain, easily hide itself under the veil of patriotism . † For Metternich, as shown in his secret memorandum to the Russian Tsar, liberalism was regarded as a menace to the status quo of Europe where most of the states were still monarchical. Whereas the relatively young republic of the United States of America would be all praises of liberalism, Metternich and his ilk were not. The French Revolution, particularly the Reign of Terror served as a wake-up call to the remaining monarchies to make them stand up and take notice on what could possibly happen if they would allow liberal ideas to germinate in their societies. He warned the other surviving monarchical governments to be on guard by saying, â€Å"The first principle to be followed by the monarchs, united as they are by the coincidence of their desires and opinions, should be that of maintaining the stability of political institutions against the disorganised excitement which has taken possession of men’s minds†¦ In short, let the great monarchs strengthen their union, and prove to the world that if it exists, it is beneficent, and ensures the political peace of Europe: that it is powerful only for the maintenance of tranquillity at a time when so many attacks are directed against it; that the principles which they profess are paterllal and protective, menacing only the disturbers of public tranquillity . † Metternich’s admonition paid off as it was evident during the revolutions of 1848 when liberal movements failed to gain a foothold or emulate the success of the French Revolution. The reason being was that these societies had no long history of empowering the people and only radical means was necessary to do it. The bottom line Metternich was pointing out was that liberalism could not be drastically erected and revolution was not always the answer to addressing the social and political problems. Furthermore, the Reign of Terror also saw how ugly liberalism would go when taken to the extreme in bringing even more instability in exchange for bringing too much freedom to the people. Bibliography Metternich, Klemens von. â€Å"Political Confession of Faith. † Fordham University Modern History Sourcebook. December 20, 1820. http://www. fordham. edu/haslall/mod/1820 metternich. html/

Death Represenataion in Sylvia Plath’s Selected Poems Essay

Death Representation in Sylvia Plath’s Selected Poems Mohamed Fleih Hassan Instructor English Dept. / Abstract Death is one of the significant and recurrent themes in the poetry of Sylvia Plath. This paper aims at showing the poet’s attitudes towards death. Certain poems are selected to show the poet’s different attitudes to death: death as a rebirth or renewal, and death as an end. Most obvious factors shaped her attitudes towards death were the early death of her father that left her unsecured, and the unfaithfulness of her husband, Ted Hughes, who left her dejected and melancholic. Plath’s ‘Two views of a Cadaver Room’, ‘Sheep in Fog’, ‘A Birthday Present’, ‘Edge’, and ‘I Am Vertical’ are selected to outline her various perspectives towards death. Death Representation in Sylvia Plath’s Selected Poems Generally speaking, death is represented in literature in various ways shifting from being an ominous terrifying force to a means of fulfillment and new beginnings. Death came to be a recurrent theme in Sylvia Plath’s poetry due to the sudden death of her father. His death left the daughter with powerful feelings of defeat, resentment, grief and remorse. So the absence of the father had influenced her emotional life negatively to the extent that it is reflected clearly in her poems. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) passed in periods of depression and there were precursors of suicidal act through fits of breakdown. Among the reasons for her early depression are the early death of her father that left her unsecured and her failure to attend a writing class at Harvard. Though she got a chair as a college guest-editor of the Mademoiselle, but she got monotonous with nothing to fall back on in New York. She broke down with the unfulfillment of her dream of being a successful writer. Therefore, she took an over-dose of sleeping-pills to end her misery, but she was saved. 1 After successful psychiatric sessions of recovery, Plath met Ted Hughes at Cambridge and they got married in 1956. She found in him a motive and substitute for the absence of the father. Hughes believed in her exceptional gift. In that period, the couple got success and fame with their poetic development, especially when they got children. Her poems had been published in Britain and America like, The Colossus 1960, which dealt with Plath’s preoccupation with ideas of death and rebirth. Hughes’ love affair with another woman broke the heart of Plath, who suffered the devastation of the broken marriage. Shifting into a new flat in London, she started writing poems of rage, despair, love and vengeance but her poems were slowly accepted for publication. She suffered the traumatic breakdown and melancholia that she put her head in the oven in 11 April, 1963. 2 Death came to be a recurrent theme in the poetry of Sylvia Plath, and this theme has been represented in different ways in her poems. She did engage the reader either in a personal or an impersonal way to view death either as a liberating force or troubling depressing experience. Her depiction of death is reflected by the use of such techniques as imagery, language, structure, and tone. Her negative attitude towards death is caused by the early death of her father that left her dejected. In her poem ‘Two views of a Cadaver Room’ (1959), she presents a pessimistic point of view towards death. This poem recounts an experience she had while dating a young Harvard medical student. She followed her boyfriend and some other medical students into an operating room where the students were busily dissecting a preserved corpse. The speaker and her boyfriend are horrified by the experience, the narrator offers two views of the cadaver room as alternate possibilities of depicting death in art; the physical view of death and the romantic view of death. One view is epitomized by the cadaver room contrasting the romantic one of death, which is represented by a detail from a Brueghel painting depicting two lovers, who are spell bounded by one another and careless to the destruction and devastation around them. The poem is written in two parts. The first part creates a futile setting in which things are described in a ‘dissecting room’, which suggests a mood of despondency. She did so by the use of wastelandish simile through comparing cadaver with ‘burnt turkey’: The day she visited the dissecting room They had four men laid out, black as burnt t urkey, Already half unstrung. (II. 1-3) The place ‘dissecting room’ suggests mercilessness and dehumanization. The dead bodies are anatomized and bones are removed which suggest a horrible image. The poetess compares death with the dissector, in which it takes off the spirit out of the body as did the doctor in dissecting the major constituents of bodies. Death here represents a terrifying force that annihilates man’s life. The dissecting room serves as the epitome of scientific space, which is to say death’s space. And this is the space not only of female witnessing and female passivity, ‘she could scarcely make out anything/ In that rubble of skull plates and old leather’, but also of a bestowal from male to female, from male scientist to female poet. The process of dissecting the dead body indicates the savageness and carelessness of the surgeon, who cuts out the heart; the symbol of man’s life and feelings. The surgeon is associated with death in the sense that he extracts the heart of the body, ‘He hands her the cut-out heart like a cracked heirloom. ‘ The simile presents a very useless pessimistic image for the heart. The heart is not only reduced to a non-functioning machine, but a man hands death to a woman. The heart is the dearest to man and is compared to the heirloom which contains the memory of the dead, but it is uprooted maliciously. Death came to be an unavoidable inheritance. 4 In many of her poems, what Plath perceives is a death-figure which threatens to swallow her up unless she can reassert her living identity by â€Å"fixing† and thus immobilizing her enemy in a structured poetic image. Plath transforms death by assuming the role of a photo-journalist who observes the details in a way as to control the scene with the transforming power of language. She follows the technique of fusing various visual images in a meaningful way. Therefore, she transcends the literal immediacy of what she sees and creates order out of chaos. The second part paradoxes the first in showing a couple who are ignorant of the horrors of death. Their ignorance of the shadow of death around them intensifies their tragic catastrophic end: Two people only are blind to the carrion army: He, afloat in the sea of her blue satin Skirts, sings in the direction Of her bare shoulder, while she bends, Fingering a leaflet of music, over h im, Both of them deaf to the fiddle in the hands Of the death’s-head shadowing their song. (II. 13-19) Plath thinks that the second view was untenable. Confronting the literal physicality of death (as the narrator does in the first stanza), and ignoring that reality (as the lovers do in the Brueghel painting) seem hopelessly romantic and naive. The only way to relinquish the painful awareness of impending death is by relinquishing life itself. Plath committed suicide in her flat moving herself and her work into the domain of myth and psycho-mystical speculation. The second view of death is the bestowal of death that is interrupted by art. Paradoxically, this interruption of death by art is itself a kind of death, a freezing of life. The poem surveys with an eye which is blind and an ear which is deaf. If the lovers’ blindness and deafness to death’s music permits them to ‘flourish’, then this flourishing is ‘not for long’. Paradoxically, the work of art saves from death by paralyzing or fixing the living in an absolute present, which is to say a perfected present, but without future: This stalling of death’s triumph by art, this resistance of art to death, is itself a kind of death, since it reminds us that those lovers captured in art’s absolute present can do nothing at all. Just as there are two kinds of music here – the death’s-head’s and the lovers’ – so art is not placed in any simple opposition to death. 6 There are two kinds of death: on the one hand, death as process, as rebirth or renewal, as imaginary; and, on the other hand, death as end, as factuality. Plath rides into death in ‘Sheep in Fog’ (1963) but death is no longer conceived as renewal. The objective in ‘Sheep in Fog’ becomes the ‘dark water’: They threaten To let me through to a heaven Starless and fatherless, a dark water. (II. 13-15) The sense of dissolution is overpowering in this poem through thee description of the background of the poem. Each line and each stanza of the poem concerns the disappearance of something. ‘hills step off into whiteness’, ‘Morning has been blackening’ and the starless heaven leave her dejected and wretched. 7 ‘Sheep in Fog’ suggests that there is a radical sundering of poet and poetry, a death of the poet that is the life of the poetry, if only as that which is in mourning for the poet. The impersonality of Plath’s later poetry is not arrived at through an ethical self-sacrifice of the poet’s empirical, autobiographical self in the interests of a universal validity, a kind of immortality or proof against death. Rather, it is an impersonality in which there is a highly paradoxical and unstable relation between poet and poetry. 8 ‘A Birthday Present’ (1962) is another dramatic monologue in which terror and death predominate. The persona longs to know the gift presented by his friend. The speaker, her friend, and the object â€Å"talk† to each other in the kitchen. She imagines that the present may be ‘bones’, ‘a pearl button’, and ‘an ivory tusk’. Each of these things has white colour and suggests the nature of the birthday present that she wants. The three white objects—bones, pearl, and ivory tusk—all suggest death because they were once part of living organisms. The persona speaks of the veils around the present. In order to remove the concealing veil, which causes her anxiety and fear, the speaker demands an end to the screening off of death from view. She compares her life at the end of the poem to the arrival by mail of parts of her own corpse. At the end, the speaker demands as her birthday present not the previously mentioned symbols of death or the figure representing death, but death itself: 9 If it were death I would admire the deep gravity of it, its timeless eyes. I would know you were serious. There would be a nobility then, there would be a birthday. And the knife not carve, but enter Pure and clean as the cry of a baby, And the universe slide from my side. (II. 52-58) The poem dramatizes her birthday to be her death. The drama of ‘A Birthday Present’ is frightening in its transformation of a domestic and happy occasion into a celebration of suicide. It captures the movement of the speaker’s mind as she throws herself into the sequence of steps that might lead her to kill herself. Plath’s second perspective towards death is that it may be chosen by the individual himself as a means of self-destruction, rather than acting as a horrible exterminating force. The poetess aims to show the suffering and agony of the persona in selecting death as a means of liberation of the antagonistic world of the person. This perspective is reflected in Plath’s ‘Edge’, which was written on 5 February 1963 and is thought to be Plath’s last poem. According to Seamus Heaney, one of the biographers of Plath, the poem was a suicide note, which is to say an entirely personal, autobiographical communication from a distressed melancholic woman. For this reason, the poem is limited by the literal death of the poet, a death that cannot help but be read back into the poem. 10 This death is a negativity that renews, and works within an economy of life. This is not just an imaginary death, but death as a figure for the imagination itself, as a negativity that may be harnessed in the interests of life. This poem carries the reader not only to the very limit of life, but also to the limit of poetry. And yet, if in this poem the woman is ‘perfected’, it is through a death that takes the form of an aesthetic object, but in which the emphasis none the less falls very much on illusion. The speaker in this poem doesn’t endure the anguish of his life and feels that his misery is over: The illusion of a Greek necessity Flows in the scrolls of her toga Her bare Feet seem to be saying: We have come so far, it is over. (II. 4-8) The bare feet symbolize the lack of protection and immunity. The tone looks submissive but it indicates the willingness to accept death as an outlet and escape of the aggressive world. The persona feels alienated in the world around him. No one cares for the persona’s death even the moon, ‘The moon has nothing to be sad about/ Staring from her hood of bone. Therefore, she starts looking for something beyond death, which is the longing for perfection. Usually roses symbolize purity, so she compares her folding of the dead bodies of children as petals of a rose close. Therefore she thinks that through death, she will have a new beginning. 11 Death as a means of rebirth is reflected in Plath’s ‘I Am Vertical’. She sets images taken from nature as a background of her poem. This use of nature as a setting for her poem shows death not as a horrible monstrous thing. She presented two fruitful lively images of nature and then she negates her alikeness to them: I am not a tree with my root in the spoil Sucking up minerals and motherly love So that each March I may gleam into leaf, Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted, Unknowing I must soon unpetal. (II. 2-7) The persona feels rejection of the surroundings when ‘the trees and flowers have been strewing their cool odours. I walk among them, but none of them are noticing. ‘ This represents the negligence of society and the social restraints that the individual feels. ‘each March I may gleam into leaf’ suggests the continuity of life and regeneration. She is longing to be united with nature via death; the nature that symbolizes serenity and tranquility, ‘Then the sky and I are in open conversation’. The word ‘sky’ gives death the sense of spirituality and elevation. The speaker is not satisfied in her life and she accepts death as a means for recognition: And I shall be useful when I lie down finally: Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me. (II. 19-20) Plath’s life is ended in a world of death and despondency from which there is no rebirth or transformation.

Heaneys Poem Follower Essay - 1600 Words

Heaneys Poem Follower Follower is a poem about the poets love and admiration for his father. It is also about the changes that occur between father and children as children move out from their parent’s shadow. In the first half of the poem the poet draws a vivid portrait of his father as he ploughs a field. The poet, as a young boy, follows his father as he goes about his work and, like most boys, he idolises his father and admires his great skill, ‘An expert. He would set the wing and fit the bright steel – pointed sock’. In the poem, Heaney looks up to his father in a physical sense, because he is so much smaller than his father, but he also looks up to him in a metaphorical sense. This is made clear by the poet’s†¦show more content†¦It is as though at this moment the boy has become aware of himself. He wants to be like his father but thinks of himself as clumsy and a â€Å"nuisance†. His fathers strength and power are also very effectively brought out in the simply, but effective simile, ‘His shoulders globed like a full sail strung between the shafts and the furrow.’ The comparison here suggests a man who spends much of his time out of doors, a man who is part of nature. The word ‘globed’ also suggests great strength and gives the impression that the father was the whole world to the young boy. It is important to note that his father is not simply strong; his tender love and care for his son are emphasised by the fact that he ‘rode me on his back dipping and rising to his pod’. The sound and rhythm of these lines covey the pleasure young Heaney had in the ride. The words ‘yapping’ make us think of the boy as being like a young and excited puppy – enjoying playing at ploughing, but of no practical help. In fact, he was a hindrance to a busy farmer, but his father tolerates him. The poem has several developed metaphors, such as the child following in his father’s footsteps and wanting to be like him. The father is sturdy while the child falls – his feet is not big enough for him to be steady on the uneven land. In the closing lines of the poem shifts again, this time the â€Å"I† voice of the poet isShow MoreRelatedHeaneys Childhood Memories in Poems Mid-Term Break and Follower2390 Words   |  10 PagesHeaneys Childhood Memories in Poems Mid-Term Break and Follower Seamus Heaney is an established Irish poet who was born on April 13th 1939. He was the oldest of nine children and was brought up on a remote farm in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He has a lot of typically Irish memories which he includes in his poems. The three main memories that he brings up in the two poems Mid-Term Break and Follower are the death of his brother Christopher, farm life and Read MoreCompare and contrast the poet‚Äà ´s relationship with their father in Heaney‚Äà ´s ‚Äà ºFollower‚Äà ¹ to Thomas‚Äà ´ ‚Äà ºDo Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.‚Äà ¹1230 Words   |  5 Pages When comparing and contrasting two poems one must remember that even though there can be similarities between the two poems, they are however separate entities that express their own thoughts. The primary similarity is that both poems of Heaney and Thomas reflect the in depth relationship in which they share between their fathers whom they have held a constant respect and hierarchy for; the difference is that Heaney has changed his role as he becomes the leading figure and Thomas is trying toRead MoreComparing and Contrasting Digging and The Follower Essay1215 Words   |  5 PagesComparing and Contrasting Digging and The Follower In this essay I will be giving quotes and explaining about two pieces of poetry, written by Seamus Heaney. The two poems I will be writing on will contrast and his memories on his rural childhood. The poems will be the follower which takes us back to Heaney as a child wanting to follow in his fathers footsteps. I will also be writing on digging, which takes us back once again to his farm but instead not wantingRead More How is Seamus Heaneys Irish Rural Heritage Reflected In his Poetry.850 Words   |  4 PagesHow is Seamus Heaneys Irish Rural Heritage Reflected In his Poetry. Seamus Heaney was born and grew up in the Irish countryside on his fathers farm. His father was still using the traditional farming methods, which had been handed down for generations, even though technology had developed greatly in the early twentieth century. Heaney learns a lot from his father about farming and how generations of his family have done it. Heaney takes a great interest in it and he admires his fathersRead MoreAn Analysis of Follower by Seamus Heaney Essay510 Words   |  3 Pagesof Follower by Seamus Heaney Follower is a poem which relates back to Seamus Heaneys past memories which he had experienced when he was at a younger age, they are memories of him and his father and their relationship. From the poem we can interpret that he was brought up on a potato farm and in many of his other poems he relates to this, this suggests that perhaps he enjoyed farming or perhaps he is expressing the familys traditions. Follower is a poem whichRead More In the two poems, follower and Digging Seamus Heaney paints vivid,1269 Words   |  6 Pagestwo poems, follower and Digging Seamus Heaney paints vivid, sensuous descriptions of his childhood memories of rural, Irish life. His language is often onomatopoeic as he describes the Comparing the poems the Follower and Digging In the two poems, follower and Digging Seamus Heaney paints vivid, sensuous descriptions of his childhood memories of rural, Irish life. His language is often onomatopoeic as he describes the â€Å"The Horses strained at his clicking tongue† from the Follower andRead MoreFollower and Digging by Seamus Heaney Essay2330 Words   |  10 PagesFollower and Digging by Seamus Heaney In his poems ‘Follower and Digging’ Heaney is thinking about his father. How do these two poems give you different ideas about his relationship with his father? In the two poems, ‘Digging’ and ‘Follower’, Seamus Heaney writes about growing up on his father’s farm, in County Derry, in Ireland. I am going to compare and contrast, remembered and present day, feelings Read More The two peaces of poetry I have studied by Seamus Heaney include1441 Words   |  6 PagesThe two peaces of poetry I have studied by Seamus Heaney include Follower and The Early Purges. Heaneys poems both relate back to his younger, adolescent life. In the poem Early purges, he describes young kittens being drowned on the farm. His maturity is shown when he says with perception, And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown, I just shrug, Bloody pups . But we are shown that he is still careless now, as well in a casual way by saying I just shrug. He is also unsympatheticRead More Common Themes in Poetry Essay4006 Words   |  17 Pagesand analysing numerous poems, I have chosen two examples of the famous Irish Poet, Seamus Heaneys work: Follower and Mid-Term Break. Both poems relate to the poets past, and are certainly associated with a specific loss of a loved one - one a literal loss, and the other a subconscious loss. Mid-Term Break, which I found to be a very touching and poignant poem, describes the loss of the poets younger brother, Christopher when Heaney was a child, hence the poem is of a childhood tragedyRead More Comparing Seamus Heaney Poems Follower, Mid-term Break, and Digging3940 Words   |  16 Pagesthis essay I will be comparing three Seamus Heaney poems we looked at in class these are called, â€Å"Follower†, â€Å"Mid-term Break† and, â€Å"Digging†. There are differences as well as similarities, the similarities include: they are all poems about and set in Seamus’ childhood memories In addition, all the poems more or less use some of the same poetic devices and techniques like: onomatopoeia and some of the same characters appear in all three poems such as like: Seamus (himself obviously) and his father