She has published prolifically in several genres, including over 10 novels, six collections of stories, and 15 books of poetry. The recipient of numerous awards, Atwood wrote Morning in the Burned House, published in , which was a co-winner of the Trillium Award.
See More By This Poet. Siren Song This is the one song everyone would like to learn: the song that is irresistible: the song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see the beached skulls the song nobody knows because anyone who has heard it is dead, and the others can't The animals in that country In that country the animals have the faces of people: the ceremonial cats possessing the streets the fox run politely to earth, the huntsmen standing around him, fixed in their tapestry of manners the bull, embroidered with blood and given an elegant death, trumpets, his name stamped on him, heraldic brand because when Another Antipastoral I want to put down what the mountain has awakened.
The victimisation and bullying Elaine received…. Later, however, we learn that the speaker has died from having drowned in the lake the photograph depicts. The poem begins with a title that is a crucial part of the text. This belief plays a significant role in the poem; it directs….
How can you implement tradition while remaining original? Many authors have been stuck inside this metaphorical box, and often do not know how they will escape. Both pieces of literature use negative events to advance their stories…. Fall of Man Depicted in Atwood's Backdrop Addresses Cowboy The sexual politics of the man-woman relationship, or more specifically the sexual exploitation of women by men, is a clear concern in Margaret Atwood's "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy.
From the vantage-point of feminine consciousness, Margaret Atwood empahsizes the "backdrop" as being not only the woman, but also the land and the spiritual life of the universe; the " cowboy " is both a man bent on personal gain possibly an American based on Atwood's strong anti-American sentiments in her novel, Surfacing and an emissary of technological progress.
The structure of the poem logically supports the theme of conflict and "imperialism" in that it is clearly divided into two sections or "camps. The perspective shifts then from predator to prey in the final five stanzas as "I", presented as victimized woman and exploited nature, "addresses" her antagonist. The tone or mood of "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy" also undergoes a change after the first four stanzas when the reader enters the tragic, joyless experience of one who is paying the price of "slaughter and desecration.
In terms of form, "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy" is written in open org As an emissary of technological progress, man has committed a sacreligious act against nature and humanity and his "fall" embodies the fall of the spiritual, the historical and the rational. In Margaret Atwood's poem, then, the troubled man-woman relationship is symptom and symbol of a greater alienation within humanity.
Man's past and present curelties to human, natural and spiritual life are expressesed metaphoricall in terms of a cowboy "winning the West" on a movie set, against a backdrop "supporting" his heroism. Get Access. Better Essays. Read More. Good Essays. Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. From the outset, Atwood chooses language that economically expands the meaning of each phrase.
Order custom essay Political Poetry by Margaret Atwood with free plagiarism report. In addition, other connotations come to mind, like "starry-eyed," or the gaudiness of "pgles. Regarded as a heroic figure by the myth of manifest destiny, he is conversely seen as a reckless tyrant by those who suffer the effects of his violence. The first stanza reveals a comic figure - "Starpgled cowboy" sauntering through his child-like fantasy while pulling a prop from the Hollywood simulacrum that supports his myth.
Using a line break to accentuate the transition, she plays the impact of a stand-alone line against the expanded meaning of its grammatical context. Contrasting the ironic character of opposed readings innocent and not-at-all-innocent within the space of shared words, Atwood foreshadows an overall conceptual structure in which "backdrop" refers both to the simulacrum of Hollywood sets and to the genuine environment of a beleaguered world. An inference like this reflects back on the subtle statement of the earlier use of "starpgled": a nation that imagines itself as besieged can use that camouflage as justification for militarism and imperialist expansion.
Again, supported by the poem, these significations demonstrate a complicated structure that works internal logic to frame an effective and damning political statement. Oppositions and Conceptual Structure This is a poem about power and disenfranchisement. It employs oppositions as a conceptual device to turn manifest destiny on its head. Exploding the cowboy myth by use of its own imagery and overarching theme of heroes and villains, Atwood draws complex parallels to American exceptionalism, a black and white ideology that drains color from alternative perspectives.
By use of satire, she effectively removes the shroud that justifies questionable actions as being both inevitable and heroic.
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