Author Archives: Kara Freeman

I enjoyed this week of poetry more than any other unit of poetry we have done. This genre made sense for me and I was able to engage emotionally, not just intellectually. I truly felt what I was listening to and I was able to appreciate it in a way I have not been able to appreciate any of the other poetry.

I am in awe of this genre of poetry. It is unprecedented in it’s kind and it’s influence has poured over into literature after it. It is a whole new level of depth that is being tapped into. It makes sense that it was so successful and started a boom of literature after it because people crave for others to be vulnerable and to step out and say things that they themselves would never admit. It is almost healing.

The genre of poetry continued to be my favorite even after my initial reaction. Doing a deeper analysis of their work and how their individual backgrounds influenced their work made me love it even more. There is something very special about speaking out not just on a societal level, but on a personal level. I believe that is what sets apart confessional poetry from the rest because poetry from past units would speak vulnerably about their personal lives but none talked about mental health

The writers in this unit had very similar backgrounds; all of them being extremely tough. Berryman witnessed his own father kill himself and Anne Sexton grew up with alcoholic parents. Both of their lives progressed in success all the while declining in mental health and a reliance on alcohol developed for both of them. Both of their lives ended in the same way as well.

I believe this is very revealing to the core of confessional poetry. These writers had real pain that they deeply felt and they truly used writing as their outlet to get it out and express it. This is different from any other genre of poetry we have read thus far because these writers literally RELIED on poetry for their own personal sake.

A character from this week that I deeply connected to was Neddy from “The Swimmer”. Watching his journey of swimming in a deep pool of self deception was a slow progression. He goes from being obliviously content in the beginning to completely existentially lost at the end and there is a lot that happens in between.

At first the reader thinks nothing of his swimming adventure and just assumes that he is about going to go on a sweet adventure from pool to pool. At first it goes smoothly and he is greeted by many people. The reader gains suspicion as he shows that he is losing his memory, “the Japanese lanterns that Mrs Levy had bought in Kyoto the year before last, or was it the year before that?”. The storms starting to pop up show us that this adventure is not what we think it is. This progresses until the point that he is exhausted and sad.

His awakening is disheartening to read. He realizes that he lost a year in one afternoon and he also realizes that he has lost his youth and everything that matters slipped through his fingers. The process of his characterization is one of my favorite I have ever read. Throughout this progression of self destruction, we find more out about the depth of his character as well as humanity. I do believe Neddy is symbolic of Cheever’s alcoholism and he conveys this experience through Neddy.

Each of the pieces in this unit was more relatable off the bat. These pieces embodied and combined many aspects of all the previous writings we have read. These readings are the stretchiest our content has gotten. It was still purposeful and required to dissect the pieces, but it was not as much of a task to do so. When picked apart, they were all concepts I could relate to. I really appreciated these writings for being distorted and using the concept of distortion effectively. This unit was not like imagism, where the goal was to condense the words to the least amount possible and be as minimalist and literal as possible.

“The Swimmer” is the winning example of this because first read there is just a lot going on and then I was able to connect dots. It is a concept that I deeply relate to after I took the time to understand it. I constantly feel like I am not living in reality and that reality is actually passing by me as I stay in my own world that I have created for myself.

He wastes all of his time and his life worrying about things that aren’t important and before he knows it all the things that were important vanished. This is what I fear for myself. I don’t worry about such vain things as he does but I definitely think that I myself am sometimes living in some kind of distorted reality that I have built. This was almost therapeutic as a reader to hear this be talked about and be acknowledged.

I felt these three pieces were very different but read similarly in some ways. I was able to read them all all the way through like reading a story, which I like because it feels natural. In each of them, there is some kind of deeper concept to figure out I think.

“Separation” is more literal in its ways because it can be figured out as you read it. It does take some pondering to figure out the deeper concept that he is trying to convey. I believe he is trying to portray the under represented fragility of men as well as their softheartedness and level of concern for the connection of the family he has built. “Cathedral” is about jealousy and insecurity and disconnection and is narrated by a man who is withdrawn. “Swimmer” is about life passing by you and not caring about the things that you should. Overall, I really enjoyed this unit because I was able to connect more easily right off the bat.

I enjoyed reading how these writers reflected upon this time period and culture in their own ways and chose different aspects to focus on. Eudora focused on the mannerisms of people and how people interacted with each other on the surface level. She focused on what constitutes the kind of people that people in the south are and take us on a ride revealing the fakeness and even manipulation that exists in many people.

Having each of their personal backgrounds in mind as I was reading was what really did it for me. For example, knowing that Yusef was in the Vietnam war gave me all of the insight in the world to understand where his words were coming from.

I think that Yusef wrote passionately but it was not in a racial context or from anger of anything bigger than himself. Eudora, focusing on how people in that culture interacted with each other, definitely was writing from a perspective that commented on a little bit more than just her own self. She was making commentary on society.

I went through many waves of revelation with this piece. I started it with not really understanding why Stanley had his stature that he had and just trying to rap my mind around Stella and Blanche. It helped going into it the second time really knowing a lot about their characters and really going into it with a deep understanding of the context – It is Post world war and Stanley is getting back from the war. Blanche needs a place to stay because of war related issues.

Also the more time I spent with it, I started to understand Blanches’ flirtatious nature and why she is so concerned about it. She does that out of the hole in her heart because she doesn’t see her genuine self as valuable; she has seen that she can earn herself things she wants with just having flirtatious charm, so that is what she brings to the table. Her relatioship with Mitch ending was rather sad because she was actually about to set him apart as a real man to commit to and then he finds out about what she has done and he too- treats her like all of the other men do – like property.

I started to realize that Stella has also probably got some mental strongholds she needs to work through. I drew a comparison and realized a big reason why she is attracted to Stanley. If Blanch is that toxic, delusional, and selfish then that is what Stella is used to so she has developed a threshold for being mistreated and keeping quiet. She is used to conforming and taking care of that kind of person. She overlooks it because oh his masculinity that she finds attractive

After this week’s discussion post, I have had to decide on my final perceptions of the stories we’ve read and a stancepoint declaring the ways they were intended to be interpreted. I thought differently about White Noise after having to decide what was intended behind the concept of existentialism that is tied into it.

Also I did a very deep analysis of the character Jack and his true fears. I picked up on things about him much later on and was able to connect his different attributes to eachother. I truly did relate to his fears in some respect; especially after thinking harder about it. I feel like this week I have read unprecedented works specifically regarding their topics of existentialism, technology, and the interrogation and tearing apart of a middle class American.

Don Dellilo focuses on the loss of direction in America in the post modern times. He criticizes politics and authority through his writing. I deeply connected with “White Noise” in a strange way. I do not necessarily have a fear of death to the extent that Jack does, but given those circumstances I could understand why he would. What I do understand is having a fear to the extent that Jack does; having a fear that will not let go of you and that constantly exists like noise. Fear truly is like noise. The setting of this story almost paralleled America today. I drew a lot of comparisons to how people are responding to the “airborne toxic event” to the different approaches of the people around me to the Carona virus. Some, like Jack’s wife are holding strong for other people and not letting it show that they are truly scared themselves, releasing this fear privately and in their own means. Others, like Jack seem to only exist in this perpetual abyss of thought pattern that they are going to die and so are the people around them. Some people I know are responding like Heinrich, endlessly analyzing and being skeptical of reality. He seems to constantly be on top of his father.

I will be comparing Anne Sexton to modernist poetry, specifically HD. Both poets are similar in that they sought a deeper meaning and they wrote with a deeper intent. Although this is true, confessional poetry and modernist poetry are very different. One aspect where these two specific writers are similar is that they both write through the framework of femininety.

1959 is the year that confessional poetry truly took launched and it is altogether unprecedented to all the other poetry we read. Modernism specifically surfaced in post world war one and it centered around the construct of a new mentality as a society/nation. Considering the historical context of modernism, the foundation of it was to destroy Victorian optimism and come to terms with fatality. The literature of this time hadn’t quite moved on to the level of individual and personal vulnerability, only widespread vulnerability.

Their backgrounds are very different because HD grew up in a nonviolent home and a father whom she was the favorite of and lived vicariously through her, wanting her to be successful. HD’s parent’s had a prestigious life laid out for her. She actually did not even want to follow it; she wanted to be an artist. Anne Sexton grew up in a violent home to an alocholic father with a very conventional life laid out for her. Anne discovered writing on her own, through therapy and she sought classes out, because it was her only way of connecting and truly expressing herself. This being said, I think this shows in their writing. There is a difference between someone who creates from the heart and because they need to vs. someone who creates from their mind and because they want to. I believe this comparison is also very revealing of the scope of poetry we have read and how the cultural/historical contexts influence and set apart every writer.