tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58428572016359143372024-02-08T07:25:15.003-08:00BrightRedInkBrightRedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12659443749277196330noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5842857201635914337.post-20775882650261851512012-07-06T11:03:00.003-07:002012-07-07T06:37:32.504-07:00Aunt Jennifer's Tigers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<center><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m44kkcl4121qzrkvzo1_250.jpg"/><br><font color="grey" size= 3>Adrienne Rich in her younger days</font> </center><p><p>
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rich aptly masquerades this poem as a frivolous story about an aging woman doing embroidery.With a more careful reading one realizes that the poem is about how art immortalizes the struggles and dreams of the human spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style=" color: #cccccc;">The first quatrain presents a very optimistic picture.It shows that Aunt Jennifer is knitting a panel of prancing tigers.<span style="line-height: 23px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect ; </span>full of majestic virtues like vigor , valor & chivalry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="line-height: 23px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Aunt Jennifer's</span><span style="line-height: 23px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> melancholic life is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals with ambiguous images of her weak fingers & the heavy wedding band. The ring symbolizes that she feels trapped under the burden of her marriage to the absent uncle. </span><span style="line-height: 23px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="line-height: 23px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The last quatrain suggests that no matter what Aunt Jennifer does she will be defeated by life.</span>Even in death Aunt Jennifer is ringed by her ordeals, and is weighed down by her previous relationship with Uncle, unable to be free like the tigers she depicted on the sewing panel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Depicting the doctrine of "ars longa, vita brevis," Aunt Jennifer's tigers continue to live on , proud & unafraid , even after her death.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Aunt Jennifer's tigers are everything that she isn't .She creates the tigers to escape to a different world where she is powerful (contrary to reality in which she is a weak fragile person). The irony is that the</span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> <span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">tigers are clearly masculine figures- depicting </span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">chivalry,</span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> one of the most role-bound attributes of patriarchy.</span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> Even her art depicts male dominance.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hence the tragedy is the she could never really escape from the clutches of patriarchy-in her life & in her art.</span></div></B>
</div>BrightRedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12659443749277196330noreply@blogger.com0