A Look at the American Poetry: Because I Could Not Stop for Death and Other Works

The key message in Truth’s poem, “If woman has a pint and man a quart—why can’t she have her little pint full?”is directed to men and delivering the message about men and their irrational fear that there is a finite supply of rights that exists in a society. They think if women get more rights they get less which is of course not true. The men think that if a woman has given rights, the men’s thinking goes that those rights are taken from their basket of rights. Truth is portraying to this fear through the this line that women right’s don’t deny the rights of a man and both of them can get their pints and quarts can be filled. This is one of the most powerful messages “And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and woman who bore him”. Man, where is your part?” of Sojourner’s poem where he said how men point out the fact that men deserve more rights as Jesus himself was man and then he quickly moves through to a very effective and powerful tool of rhetoric: guilt. He references to the birth of Jesus and how it involves a woman and God himself and how men had nothing to did with it. We have to apprehend that in a in a time in which the Bible was the only book that thought to be most credible and probably the only book people used to read, Truth suggested that men not mankind but the male gender did not even played any part in the arrival of their lord and savior is powerful stuff.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

In this quote “He kindly stopped for me”, Emily describes the death as a perfect gentleman. Death is so considerate that he stopped for her when she couldn’t do it for herself. This quote shows love and tranquility of death and the death seems to looks like the beginning of something new instead of an ending. So am not saying that Death is a men but that’s how Emily portrays it as pure gentleman, but still a man. May be not the kind of men you bring home to your family, well that if you like your family. But she makes it seem like you'll have a really pleasant one really special date together. If you imagine in him in a nice suit, black of course. This is a very deep rotted and spiritual quote “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain”, in the poem the “Grain” is often mentioned in the Bible, and it represents the prosperity and life. The fact that they are passing the field of grain speaks the writer’s ending journey that’s away from health and life and it’s towards death now. In the afterlife the spirit is thought to be free from the body that is perishable, so the body now doesn’t need grain or any other form of food. Hunger is a thing for living. I think that’s the writer’s perspective for this quote and idea behind is to portray the journey toward death.

I'm Nobody! Who Are You

This line “I’m Nobody! Who are you?-Are you _ Nobody – too?”, represents how as an individual we are attached to our identities. She is trying to say that we don’t need names and identities to exist and to love. She says how simple it is to be nobody rather being a somebody, somebody who has the name and fame and all that glory. But it’s so much better to not have all those things so we can be just you and me. Its so much difficult to find an loyal companionship when you become somebody. They all want be with somebody but only people who are true would be with a nobody. In this quote “Then there’s a pair of us! _ Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!”, she appreciates her likeliness with other nobody rather than appreciate her uniqueness and be a somebody. Imagine being so satisfied in oneself and your life that not being recognized and advertised seems peaceful. We all want to be well known and well recognized and Emily is directing her writing towards us and telling us how it’s all a big trap. That they are going to turn you into something else and advertise you. She wants us to appreciate being the nobodies instead of running towards being a somebody.

“Good Country People:”

Hulga seems and extreme introvert character. She grew up with deformity and a highly involved parent. She grew up introvert and she felt inconsiderate towards other. She portrays that she believes in nothing and expect nothing from life. But she clearly believed in Manley and his innocence which shows how much she yarns for love and affection from others. Manly character seems fishy and doubtful from start. He is very elusive and manipulative. He stole Hulga’s leg just for entertainment and that shows something dark and sinister inside him. He clearly doesn’t believe in God and anything as he used this quote, “you aint so smart. I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!”

Thinking that one is superior to others and have a higher power over others seems a common quality in both the characters of Mrs. Freeman and Pointer. The both have an antagonist streak to them. As Mrs. Freeman had said, “I know it. I‖ve always been quick. It‖s some that are quicker than others”. The characters also share the trait of using other’s vulnerability for their own advantage. Mrs. Freeman seem to recognized Pointer for who he really was, as it’s a very common saying that it takes one to know one. Mrs. Freeman recognized that one can’t as simple as he seems and there has to be something wrong with him. Moreover Pointer is as sadistic of character as Mrs. Freeman as she also used to get entertained by the story of Hulga’s accident and take interest in her deformity more than anything about her. Two same people always has an intuition about others, even if they pretend to be different from each other.

Mrs. Hopewell seems a very genuine and simple woman and a good Christian but she feels guilty for her daughter’s deformity as its mentioned in story “Mrs. Hopewell excused this attitude because of the leg (which had been shot off in a hunting accident when Joy was ten)”, and that’s what their relationship problems come from. Mrs. Hopewell treats Hulga as a child who can’t do anything on her own even after her achievements and her being a philosopher. She changed her name form Joy to Hulga just get back with her mother. She changed her identity and name just so she doesn’t have to be what her mother sees her as. Also she spends time in her bathroom in the morning just to avoid her mother also show how their dynamics is in the story. Hulga wants to be treated normal. She craves to feel loved and not want to see her mother pitying her. And when the only important person in life sees her like that her whole point of view towards life changed. Parents are the people who matters most to a children. And it matters to most to a child of any age to feel confirmed by their parents. But Hulga felt that she has to be a rebel to feel normal in her mother’s eyes.