I loved the poem Marks by Linda
Pastan. Even though it was far from as long and descriptive as Emily Bronte’s
The Night-Wind or as flowery as anything Shakespeare wrote; it still told a
story. It is a story of a woman who has been placed in the typical position as
housewife and caretaker. Uses of lines
such as “My husband gives me an A for last night's supper” and “My
daughter believes in Pass/Fail and tells me I pass” are what really
grabbed me. In this poem, Pastan compares the idea of mother/wife-hood (rather difficult,
heavy and emotionally involved livelihoods) to something as simple (and
honestly pointless) as a high school grading system. No offense Mrs. Arnold. The
contrast really pushes across the tone of a tired woman who’s done with the way
her family views her.
I’ve always been a bit of a feminist myself,
so when I first read this poem, I thought to myself: “Good for her! Don’t put
up with those jerks; move on, leave and be happy”. I later read this poem to my
mother (because some of us geeks do things like that) and received a completely
different response. Instead of viewing the last line “Wait 'til they learn I'm
dropping out” as a sign of strength and will power, she saw it as a cop
out-- a woman running away from a little harsh judgment. She told me that it is
a mother’s job to be judged and graded and there is nothing worse than a mother
running away from that role because of some harsh criticism. I quickly informed
her that her dinners were always an A+ and since dad was still living under the
same roof as us, he had never claimed her to be anything less than wonderful at…
uuummm… well, anything. We laughed but she didn’t change her stand point and
that got me to thinking; what if the last line isn’t her leaving her family but
rather her leaving the “system”. Maybe she is just done with what her family
thinks about her performance and is ready to work for herself and do what is
BEST for everyone else, not necessarily what will get her a 4.0 on her next
report card. Any thoughts?
I just want to add that it makes me very sad
that there are no fun fonts on this blog and that I hope all you guys have
awesome Thanksgiving Breaks. Except Hailey. But it's okay because I eat men.
I really liked this poem too Joella! I liked the fact that you read it to your mom, it really helped give the poem a standpoint from an actual mother! I agree that it wasn't as flowery or pretty as Shakespeare, but I don't think it was meant to be like that. The poem was just blunt and to the point. I viewed it too as a mother being judged by her family, personally though I took it one step farther. I thought about why a mother was being judged by her own family. I mean, they are supposed to be the ones that love us the most, right? I can totally see why the mom would drop out. And I agree with your last part about the mom dropping out to do what's best for her for once in her life. She wanted to do things the way she wanted to do them, she didn't want to be judged by her own family for doing these things. I really loved your views, it gave me such a different point of view!
ReplyDeleteI loved this poem! I loved how Pastan used a grading system in the poem. It gave the poem more depth. I viewed the mother as tired and just ready to give up already, like when she says, " I'm dropping out". This poem honeslty made me think of my mother and about everything she does. Cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry isn't easy and this poem makes us see the stand point of a mother who's just exausted already. I can understand why she wants to drop out. Who would'nt right? No one likes to be judged, especially by your own family.
ReplyDeleteI saw it as a cop out because I watched my own mother do the same thing. My mom felt that people were judging her and asking for more than she wanted to give, and she always gives up when she thinks things are too hard. She also kicked my dad out because he was always telling her she wasn't working hard enough or wasn't being a good mom to my siblings and I. So, as you can tell, I drew a VERY personal connection to this poem. This poem hit me pretty hard. When I read it, I saw an image of my mom walking out on me from four years ago and I couldn't stop the tears from falling. Sorry, Joella, but I'm going to have to side with your mom on this one.
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