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    The Woman Speaks Vs For My Mother - AnjM

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    AnjaliM
    This document provides a comparative analysis of the poems "For My Mother May I Inherit her Strength" and "The Woman Speaks to the man who has employed her son" by Lorna Goodison. It summarizes that both poems address the issues of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation. For unplanned pregnancy, both women became unexpectedly pregnant but chose to carry the babies to term, showing courage. For paternal deprivation, the children in both poems lacked father figures, though it was partial for one poem and total for the other, with different outcomes. In conclusion, the document states that Goodison's poems present important modern themes through their exploration of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation.

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    The Woman Speaks Vs For My Mother - AnjM

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    AnjaliM
    73 views2 pages
    This document provides a comparative analysis of the poems "For My Mother May I Inherit her Strength" and "The Woman Speaks to the man who has employed her son" by Lorna Goodison. It summarizes that both poems address the issues of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation. For unplanned pregnancy, both women became unexpectedly pregnant but chose to carry the babies to term, showing courage. For paternal deprivation, the children in both poems lacked father figures, though it was partial for one poem and total for the other, with different outcomes. In conclusion, the document states that Goodison's poems present important modern themes through their exploration of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation.

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    Comparative analysis of Lorna Goodison's two poems, 'For My Mother' and 'The Woman Speaks'.

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    The Woman Speaks vs For My Mother - AnjM

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    This document provides a comparative analysis of the poems "For My Mother May I Inherit her Strength" and "The Woman Speaks to the man who has employed her son" by Lorna Goodison. It summarizes that both poems address the issues of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation. For unplanned pregnancy, both women became unexpectedly pregnant but chose to carry the babies to term, showing courage. For paternal deprivation, the children in both poems lacked father figures, though it was partial for one poem and total for the other, with different outcomes. In conclusion, the document states that Goodison's poems present important modern themes through their exploration of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    73 views2 pages

    The Woman Speaks Vs For My Mother - AnjM

    Uploaded by

    AnjaliM
    This document provides a comparative analysis of the poems "For My Mother May I Inherit her Strength" and "The Woman Speaks to the man who has employed her son" by Lorna Goodison. It summarizes that both poems address the issues of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation. For unplanned pregnancy, both women became unexpectedly pregnant but chose to carry the babies to term, showing courage. For paternal deprivation, the children in both poems lacked father figures, though it was partial for one poem and total for the other, with different outcomes. In conclusion, the document states that Goodison's poems present important modern themes through their exploration of unplanned pregnancy and paternal deprivation.

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    Anjali Maharaj​ ​Form 3-1

    English B 22/02/2019

    Comparative Analysis: ‘The Woman Speaks’ and ‘For My Mother’

    In Lorna Goodison’s poems, ‘ For my Mother May I Inherit her Strength’


    and ‘The Woman Speaks to the man who has employed her son’, many prevalent
    issues in today’s society are highlighted. Goodison presents these issues in these
    pieces of poetry through her use of diction and literary devices. In this essay, I will
    focus mainly on the issues of Unplanned Pregnancy and Paternal Deprivation.
    The theme of unplanned pregnancy shares many similarities in both poems.
    In both poems, due to the use of Goodison’s language, it is inferred that both
    women are pregnant but neither is aware of this oncoming responsibility. It is also
    inferred that although the pregnancy is unexpected in both cases, the women both
    decided not to abort, but instead carry the babies full-term, showing their love for
    their unborn children. This is a classic example of current events worldwide, either
    due to rape or irresponsibility of young people. However, not many people would
    choose to carry the baby, proving the courage of both women.
    Contrastingly, both pieces also share differences in the theme of unplanned
    pregnancy. In the poem, ‘The Woman Speaks…’, the speaker was clearly left by
    the man who impregnated her, thus suggesting that the man was a ‘playboy’. The
    man also never offered any form of support as seen in, lines 15-16, ‘he treated all
    his children with equal and unbiased indifference.’ However, in ‘For My
    Mother…’, the unexpected pregnancy of Doris led to a shotgun marriage to the
    man who had impregnated her, thus revealing that Doris still had a small amount of
    support in the household.
    In addition both poems share the similar theme of paternal deprivation. In
    the case of, ‘The Woman Speaks…’, there is no father figure in the son’s life. This
    results in the mother needing to earn enough money to support herself as well as a
    child since there was no father figure to help the family financially. Similarly, in
    ‘For My mother’, the father does not earn any money to support the children, thus
    Doris has to work very hard to provide for all nine of her children and their basic
    needs.
    However, both poems were also different in the theme of paternal
    deprivation. In ‘The Woman Speaks’, the son has total paternal deprivation, in
    which his mother is forced to act as the mother and the father. However, this
    proves to be fruitless because the son deviates no matter what his mother tries to
    do. In his desperation for a father figure in his life, the son ends up wound up in
    criminal events, where he looks up to the gang leader as a father. This results in
    him being led to ‘ a hot and exploding death’. On the other hand, in ‘For My
    Mother’, the children only suffered from partial paternal deprivation. Thus, the
    father was still there to discipline the children for their wrongdoings. This results
    in none of the children deviating, but instead getting respectable occupations.
    Moreover, Doris works from home, thus being able to keep an eye on her children
    at all times, making it difficult for them to meet with any dishonourable people.
    This is not the case in, ‘The Woman Speaks’ because the mother needs to go to her
    job, suggesting that the son had quite a bit of time to ‘hang out’ with the wrong
    crowd, thereby increasing the risk of him deviating.
    In conclusion, Lorna Goodison’s poems, ‘For My Mother…’ and ‘The
    Woman Speaks’ both present important themes which are prevalent in society
    today. These themes aid in the development of these poems and help us to to better
    understand these issues.

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