Critical Reflection on Readings

A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud AND Homage to the San Francisco YMCA

A tree, a rock, a cloud by Carson McCullers, and Homage to the San Francisco YMCA by Richard Brautigan both deal with the universal theme of love and loneliness in new and interesting ways. A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud deals with love and loneliness interchangeably. It shows an old man recounting his days of many years ago. He speaks of how he was lonely and that whilst he could appreciate things, he was still always left with an empty and ‘loose’ feeling inside. This was until he found love. He describes it as “All I had ever felt was gathered together around this woman. Nothing lay around loose in me any more but was finished up by her”. The piece is written as a short story and is written in third person and is present tense, with the old man often speaking of the past. I would place this short story by Carson McCullers in the romance genre based on its main themes, however it doesn’t read like a typical romance. It seems to be a more cautionary tale as a whole. It speaks of heartbreak and loneliness and one man’s struggle at finding love. The beginnings of the story make you feel awkward when reading about the man, you feel sorry for the young boy who has been somewhat trapped by the man in the café and feel as though you are judging him along with Leo, the owner. The overall theme of love and loneliness is amplified through the use of direct conversation in the piece. It is through the conversation that we learn the story or the lonely man, but through the description and imagery of his actions we see that his loneliness is still with him even though he ‘loves’ everything.
Homage to the San Francisco YMCA however deals with love and loneliness in a different way. It tackles love as more of an abstract idea – you are in love with an idea rather than a person. The man in the story is in love and somewhat obsessed with poetry. He wishes to replace necessities in his life (the plumbing in his house) with poetry. This can be seen as an overall arching metaphor for the piece – that his love for one thing made him alienate the important things in his life. The plumbing can be seen as a symbol for family and friends, and when his obsession with poetry goes to far, his friends have already left him and continued on with their lives. This not only emphasises the loneliness that the man must now feel, but also how blind obsession and love can potentially take over our lives. Through the use of short sentences, Brautigan has left as with a feeling of angst and curiosity. We need to know what is going to happen, how the plumbing fixtures feel about being replaced by poetry. It is an odd concept, yet this makes it interesting and makes the reader try to understand what exactly is the subtext of the short story.

Woman to Man AND This Be The Verse

Woman to Man, by Judith Wright, deals with family as a whole, it is the centre of everything that is happening. The poem is about a pregnant woman and her feelings surrounding the event. It shows how even without ever meeting this person, she still feels as if she knows them. This is seen through the lines “This is no child with a child's face; this has no name to name it by: yet you and I have known it well”. Through the repetition of child, then of name, the reader is given a steady pace at which to read the poem. It gives it a nice rhythm and enables the reader to also change the voice slightly when reading it aloud, which has the effect of making it more personal and less monotone. The rhyming sequence in this poem goes abcaa, which changes up the flow of the sonnet and makes it not seem so repetitive when reading. The idea of family that is highlighted in Woman to Man is the idea that the man is to protect them, the woman to care for the child and the child to be embraced. The main feeling throughout the poem is one of hope and angst for what is to come, “This is our hunter and our chase”. Not only is starting a family exciting and has feelings of joy and love accompany it, but it also has feelings of fear and worry. This is highlighted in the last line of the poem “Oh hold me, for I am afraid.”
This Be The Last Verse, by Phillip Larkin, deals with family in a different manner. Larkin approaches family in a blunt and confronting way. This is seen through his use of swearing and through the way that he does not dance around what he wants to say. Unlike Wright in Woman to Man, when Larkin wishes to voice his views on parenting and on children he simply states it and does not try to use imagery to symbolize what he wants to say. Rather he simply says, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” And, “Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.” Through his use of short sentences and his abab rhyming pattern, Larkin is able to create a nice rhythm in which his poem is not only read to a beat, but also bluntly to accompany his ideas. The overall feeling towards family in This Be The Last Verse tends to be more depressing compared to that of Woman to Man. Larkin displays this in the line “Man hands on misery to man.” This shows how Larkin sees each generation carrying on the problems of the last.
The two pieces, both alike in theme and structure, deal with the topic of family in a very different way. One reads beautifully and gives feelings of hope and a touch of frailty, whereas the other gives you somewhat of a wake up call.