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(2017
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2017 (index to #3 samples) #3: Web Highlights |
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John Silverio
Pleasure in the Pain
Throughout the trio of short essays I reviewed, I found my fellow
literature students identifying with and enjoying the open display of human
emotion shown in the historical texts of the course. Many of the works we have
been assigned to read only came into existence because the original writers felt
the need to express a response to some cultural or societal duress.
Nevertheless, both the well-worn travelers and bright-eyed students of the
literature field often find the most pleasurable reading when the writer, for
whatever reason, has their back against the wall. An almost dirty pleasure, and
one I am which I do not solely possess. Literary analysts Liaw, Loza, and Arnold
each relished a different “painful” passage so much they chose to write on them
as their favorite passage. A brief investigation into their writings reveals
why.
In a four-paragraph analysis of Bradstreet’s
The Author To Her Book, Liaw
correctly identifies the core mechanism at the center of the poem: an extended
metaphor paralleling a book written by Bradstreet to a blemished child. This
metaphor does a metric ton of work in a literary sense: first Liaw notes how the
comparison “shapes an unknown feeling into a physical
being” by personifying the abstract idea of a book into the form of a human
baby. As her analysis of the poem shifts to the moment when the “child” is cast
harshly into public domain, the tone of Liaw’s paper becomes almost sympathetic.
The blending of a natural concern for a child “under public eye” blends smoothly
with the image of an exposed writer hearing criticism for the first time. Liaw
identifies the highlight of Bradstreet’s poem as its portrayal of defenseless
and risky creative expression through metaphor, and describes the heartfelt work
with diction such as “mastery”, “echoes”, and “forever”. The angst with which
Bradstreet wrote rang loud and clear to a 21st century literature
student, ironically creating an enjoyable piece that displayed tremendous pain.
Arnold also wrote on a Bradstreet poem, noting a different extended
metaphor that revealed an ache within the poet’s heart. “In
Reference To Her Children” personifies a mother dove and the mixed emotions
she feels as her children leave the nest. The poem recreates the journey of
parenting as the mother dove swells with pride, trembles with peril, and
ultimately accepts that the sendoff of children is but a natural part of life.
Similar to Liaw’s response, the intimacy of the work resulted in Arnold
attesting to the piece as “relatable”. Arnold spares no time in stating the
emotional connection Bradstreet created – by the second sentence the literary
student notes how the “poem has a way of speaking to the heart of the reader”.
This figurative language shows readers that the poem united the feelings of
Bradstreet and Arnold in such a way that kinship was created, despite the
centuries between them. Though Arnold admits she has no children, the 17th
century poet managed to create a “picture of … sharing the love of my own mother
to my children” in Arnold’s mind, over 400 years after her writing. The
explosive power of intimacy harnessed by Bradstreet is evidenced by Arnold’s
brief treatise on “In Reference To Her
Children.” Though the poem reads as if it were a peek into private matters,
Arnold states that she found herself “carried through the poem in a melodic
way”. The enjoyment of the poem stems from the vulnerable nature of the content.
The last short essay continues in the vein of enjoying intimate human
expression, though it steps away from analyzing a single work. Loza opines on
the subject of the Baroque era and how its trend of intense emotion captured her
fancy. Her essay is titled “The Baroque
Obsession”, and within it she notes how this obsession occurs “not just in
literature, but in the other numerous forms …such as architecture and in art.”
Loza then identifies the pain within Baroque not to be one a tragic or physical
pain, but rather a yearning to express that which has been bottled up for so
long. Loza finds this act of
liberation “so over the top and dramatic and actually quite beautiful.”
Throughout the essay she notes specific examples of Baroque architecture, art,
and literature. Of particular interest stood the works of Sor Juana Inez De
Cruz, which belts out strong emotion despite the cultural and societal
restrictions on female voices at the time. Loza reveals that the Baroque piece
“You Men” is full of “statements that
… [women] were not even encouraged to write at all. So, for Juana Inez to be
expressing herself in this way is quite inspirational…” In this way Cruz is like
Bradstreet, and Loza aptly identifies this connection. Both authors freely
expressed emotion, despite the low status that women held back then. The works
of Bradstreet and Cruz are, in Loza’s eyes, “inspirational for women because
these women did something that was not encouraged.” Their literary rebellion
against the prevailing gender expectations at the time revealed emotions that
had long been silenced by the culture, but could be held no longer. Loza
recognizes the risk and pain of such expression, but ends her essay by noting
the deeply moving nature of their writings.
A close reading of past students’ writings reveals a thread in all the
pieces they called their favorite: a propensity to not only express pain, but do
so in a vulnerable, surprisingly relevant way. Perhaps this is a statement on
what type of literature we enjoy the most. So much of the reading for this class
is purely historical. Documents, treaties, and jargon are necessary context, but
I resonate with my three peers who previously took the class. They do not
resonate with me quite like the more human pieces by Bradstreet or Cruz. Though
each focused on different texts, Loza, Liaw, and Arnold found the tragedy and
pain in their favorite readings reminiscent of 21st century feelings
and issues. Though the progression of time is inevitable, through literature we
can continue to read and connect to lives long past – just as my peers did.
