“Find a need and fill it,” Ruth Stafford Peale. Finding a need is not hard. The hard part is trying to fill it in. Needs are part of everyday life, others far more important than others. In her poems “Kindness” and “Mushrooms” Sylvia Plath talks about the absences of necessities, and emotional needs and the necessity of freedom, through her use of food imagery.
The absence of emotional needs is seen throughout the two poems. In “Kindness,” Kindness tells the woman in the poem that food or sugar, “can cure everything…Sugar is a necessary fluid, (lines 9-10). In this poem sugar is used as a poultice that covers emotional needs that are not present at the moment. Just like nowadays chocolate and, alcohol are used to cure emotional absence and Kindness suggests using sugar in the similar manner. Food imagery in Mushrooms is used in a comparable way, “Diet on water, and crumbs of shadow.” The topic of this poem is the absence of basic necessity that women lacked in the 1950s, freedom. Women were in the shadows of men, feeding on what was left over from their glory and freedom. Women were not allowed to leave the shadows of men, having no opinions and no personal voice. The men got everything, the feasts, the spotlight, and honor. Women were only left with what was unwanted, which this poem shows are the crumbs and water. They are only allowed to ask for “little or nothing.” In both poems women share the lack of happiness. In Kindness the sugar provides temporary happiness that seems sweet at first but in the end turns bitter. In Mushrooms sooner or later the crumbs will not be enough. Women need and deserve much more and they are begging to understand that. Soon they will reach out and take what they deserve.
However, like in any story, there is always a villain in the way of getting what is wanted so dearly. In both poems there is a hazard of someone in the way of the women taking and filling in their wants. In Mushroom men are in the way of the women’s freedom. The man is the provider, giving the crumbs and water. Even though the men get all the good things they still provide women with the most basic needs for survival. In Kindness, Kindness is the way of filling emotional absence. Kindness falsely leads the woman to believe that sugar is the cure all, something that is absolutely needed. Kindness stops the woman from making her own decisions and keeps her from dealing with her problem in the right manner. Instead of dropping the false cure Kindness brings tea, another thing that can be considered a cure all. Kindness keeps up with the false cure making the woman believing that this is how things are supposed to be. This is the main difference between the two poems. The women in Mushrooms understand that this is not how things are supposed to be and they are fighting to stop it, “We shall by morning inherit the earth our foot’s in the door.” While in Kindness the woman believes Kindness and does not fight her ways.
It is necessary to see the difference between truths and lies. People need to see what they need to fight for and how to fight to fill in the absences. Not with false things as portrayed in the poems such as sugar and crumbs, but with real things. Only then will true happiness be achieved.
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2 comments:
Maria, i felt that your ending was very consice and nicely worded!!
1. i think that saying "just like now adays chocolate and alcohol are used to cure emotional absence" needs to be reworded by saying "just like now adays chocolate and alocohol are used to TRY to cure emotion absences" becuase they are never successful in the end, so you should add that one extra word.
2. although you were concise in the end, you could be a bit more concise in the body paragraphs. Do this by not having so many little sentences, instead add them together.
EXAMPLE "Women were in the shadows of men, feeding on what was left over from their glory and freedom. Women were not allowed to leave the shadows of men, having no opinions and no personal voice"
instead say, "women were in the shadows of men, and were not allowed to leave that dark place, feeding on what was left over from their glory and freedom and having no personal voice".
3. the begining was good, but should really be reworded,
maybe say "Ruth Stafford Peale once said, "Find a need and fill it". Of course this is easier said than done, becuase most people struggle to find a way to fill that need.
- angelina sorokin
This is a very interesting essay; I never thought about this aspect of those poems. I especially liked the comparison of chocolate and alcohol.
Suggestions:
1. The first sentence in your body is "The absence of emotional needs is seen throughout the two poems." This makes it sound like Plath has no emotional needs. It should be replaced by something like "Throughout thew two poems Plath's emotional needs are consistently unmet. "
2. You are omitting or misusing some articles. "using sugar in the similar manner" should be changed to "using sugar in a similar manner" and "the absence of basic necessity" should be changed to " the absence of a basic necessity"
3. Always quote and cite your sources correctly. A / indicates a change in line, and in this case the qoute should be followed by the name of the poem in quotes folloed by the line numbers. The name of the poem and the line numbers should be in parentheses.
Ex.
"Line 1 of the poem / Line 2 of the poem / Line 3 of the poem" ("Poem name" 1-3).
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