“It seems like my family was crippled and hurt as much as if their flesh had been riddled by bullets and their limbs were apart.
Meridel Le Sueur uses this specific type of figurative speech for several different reasons. Her (Le Sueur’s) “girl” came from the poor working class, where people had to make many difficult and most of the time dangerous choices in order to support their living. There were no job security, choices for poor people in regards to jobs were limited, and the jobs that they (poor people) could get were dangerous, which means people could get killed or crippled for the rest of their lives.
Besides, they were all living in violent society, where most poor people would get drunk, get involved in a fight, and get shot. And their flesh can get riddled by bullets and their limbs can be torn apart.
So, in her language, she (Le Sueur) not just trying to deliver the pain of parents “loosing the children one way or another”, which telling us about fate of children of most poor families of that time, she is also trying to deliver to a reader pain, struggle, and vulnerability of poor people of that time.
I find Le Sueur’s language somewhat revolutionary. “No he was good. Something was against him, all his working didn’t make no difference”. From this I can understand that opportunities for people of that time were very limited regardless of how hard they worked, and how hard they tried. They all had common fate awaiting for all of them – getting crippled, hurt, and riddled by bullets.
When she uses this sentence about this very family she is also compares it with a human body. When people lose some organs of their bodies they become crippled and nothing ever would make their bodies whole and complete. In this very sentence we can understand that every member of that family is needed, loved, and necessary, and losing any member of the family would feel like losing a part of the body. Without having all members of the family together this family is destined to be crippled and hurt.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
this passage is very interesting. the part that interests me the most is at the end when you say that this family is destined to be crippled and hurt forever. after a while in the story it starts to seem this way. it is very clear that this family best operates when they stick together.
ReplyDeleteI would also have to agree with Phillip. I think it is very interesting concept.. it is one that can be applied to families even today. Whether rich or poor, when losing a piece of that family nothing will and ever could be the same. Most of the time it is for the worse. Even when losing apart of oneself many feel their sense of self worth is lowered to a different standard because they no longer possess the qualities they had at one point in time. I also find it interesting that their destiny is in fact to become separated in a sense. Or else by the sounds of the passage crippled, hurt or riddled by bullets.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting comment you make about this passage is about how, through her use of language, Le Sueur turns the family in a human body. In addition, I think you make a good point when you say that every member of the family is needed, but in the story they are not all there. What is interesting to me is that later in the story when the girl’s father dies, it seems like some of the family members are better off. This makes me question just how important the family structure is. Then again, maybe this is just foreshadowing.
ReplyDelete