SLD packet 2 - Summary of Amy Lowell’s “Captured Goddess” Formal Critique of “Hands” by Sherwood PDF

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Summary of Amy Lowell’s “Captured Goddess”
Formal Critique of “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson
Contextual Critique of “I, Too” by Langston Hughes
Value Judgement of “In Just-“ by ee cummings
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Evelynn Shanks ENG 2360.009 October 23, 2017 Ms. Amanda North SLD Packet 2 Summary of Amy Lowell’s “Captured Goddess” In the poem “Captured Goddess”, Amy Lowell begins by describing a flicker of color she saw above the housetops. She then continues to describe the figure she sees, then explains that it was a Goddess. The speaker then follows the goddess as she flies into the city. The goddess has rainbow feathers, the speaker is amazed by these feathers and calls out the precious gems she is reminded of when looking at the feathers. When the speaker reaches the town, they see the goddess ties up and ashamed. The people of the town begin to auction off the goddess and the speaker leaves the town ashamed.

Formal Critique of “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson In the short story “Hands” by Sherwood Anderson, Wing Biddlebaum, who was accused nearly two decades before of engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a child, is now a recluse strawberry picker whose only friend is a man named George Willard. The author uses point-of-view to cloud the main character, Wing, in intense ambiguity about his guilt. The story also emphasizes Wing’s hands in an way that personifies then as the antagonist of the story, making even Wing Biddlebaum a victim. Throughout the story, Anderson indirectly places the blame on Wing’s hands, he does this by not only by creating an ambiguous admission of guilt in the end as well as the fear Wing feels about what his hands are capable of. Looking at Wing’s hands as an evil character that Wing is victim to makes the reader feel intense empathy for Wing. Anderson’s ability to create empathy for a pedophile is heavily due to the personification of Biddlebaum’s hands. Anderson also achieves this emotion through his use of point-of-view. The story is told from the point-of-view of George Willard. This continues until the last paragraph when Wing eating crumbs off the floor is compared to the hands of someone going through their rosary. Even the recollection of the initial incident in which Adolph Myers was caught up in a scandal, seems to be from the point-of-view of someone other than the antagonist of the story. By not allowing the antagonist the opportunity to tell the story of the scandal directly, Anderson is able to envelope the story in ambiguity over if Biddlebaum crossed any lines that he had been accused of crossing.

Contextual Critique of “I, Too” by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes is a central figure of the Harlem Rennisance who helped establish black literature in America. Langston Hughes was also a political activist. His influence was so great that between 1953 and 1959 he was listed as a security risk by the FBI and was not able to leave the country for fear of not being allowed to return. The poem “I, Too” was written in 1926, a time of rising unrest for African Americans in The United States. In the poem, which is an ekphrastic response to Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing”, Hughes explains his feelings of being excluded from the American dream as well as his faith that he will one day be will be recognized as a deserving recipient of the American dream. Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing” is about inclusion and diversity. This inclusion and diversity is more focused on economic class than race. Whitman names all the people from different walks of life singing, a boatman, a carpenter, a mother, and a shoemaker are all among the singers heard. Hughes’ response to this poem is interesting in that he seems to be making a powerful assertion, much like Whitman was during his time. Hughes writes of the shameful experience of being asked to eat in the kitchen away from company due to his skin color. This inclusion of a scenario that occurred all too often in this time period allowed people to identify with Langston as well as empathize. The most powerful line in the poem is when the speaker says “They’ll see how beautiful I am”. The intense emotions of sorrow that accompanies this statement is one that many can relate too. This allows the reader to suffer with the speaker.

Value Judgement of “In Just-“ by ee cummings In the poem “in Just-“ by ee cummings, children are described playing in spring time while a “goat-footed ballonMan” lurks around. ee cummings is known for using punctuation, capitialization, and format to emphasize the meanings of his work. This technique is overwhelmingly clear in this poem and that is what makes it so effective. I communicated with this piece only after hearing it read aloud in class. Hearing the poem read the way it was meant to be read allowed me to fully understand the meaning of the poem and see why it was written in such a different way. The poem emphazies the reality that evil is always lurking. By using children as the prey of the poem, cummings allows to invoke a feeling of innocence that is resonated by the setting of spring time. The visual image of children playing in spring is one that is easy to imagine and then attempting to imagine a “goat-footed balloonMan” whistling to the children and drawing them in is quite difficult. But understanding that the balloonMan is a symbol of evil and temptation allows the poem to be seen in a new light. ee cummings’s work focuses heavily on his emotions of the time. He lived in an era of American history where death and evil did not exclude anyone. This gloom hangs over his work and at the time was an accurate cultural response to the world wars. Reading his work, especially “in Just-“ was enjoyable and allowed me to gain perspective of the emotions that Americans felt during the interwar era....