Preview

Esssay on the Poem, "Lisa's Ritual, Age 10"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
535 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Esssay on the Poem, "Lisa's Ritual, Age 10"
The poem, “Lisa’s Ritual, Age 10” written by Grace C Kuhns takes us through the tasks and feelings of the young girl after she has experienced sexual abuse by her father. To what extent might the title refer not only to the physical ritual of cleansing but the psychological ritual of distancing her from the memories? This poem’s title refers slightly to the physical ritual’s she goes through to clean up. The author’s description of what Lisa does after cleaning up helps us imagine her in her safe place. From the title of this poem, I feel the title refers mostly to the psychological rituals that Lisa goes through to distance herself from the horrible memories. The only part of the poem that I can tell that refers to the physical rituals of cleansing that Lisa goes through is, “lots of mouthwash helps to get rid of her fathers cigarette taste. She runs a hot bath” (353). This only tells us what she does, not what is going through her mind afterwards. It does paint a picture of what Lisa goes through to get the smell and taste of her father cleaned off her, but it is not what the majority of the poem is about. Which is what she mentally goes through after the abuse; how she unwinds from the terrible experience. In my opinion, this young girl shows an outstanding amount of strength, as Kuhns says, “She doesn’t cry” (353). For a young girl to not cry after the trauma she has just been put through tells me it’s like she is almost immune to it. Could you go through an experience like this over and over again without asking for someone’s help? Lisa does, she deals with it in her own way, that’s takes a lot of strength. Kuhn re-creates what Lisa feels mentally, “Then she finds the corner of her room, curls up against it.” “The wall is steady as she falls away.” “When she feels the cool wall against her cheek she doesn’t want to come back. Doesn’t want to think about it. The wall is quiet, waiting. It is like a tall promise only better” (353-354). After the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The semantic field of pathos creates sympathy for Nicole here as she is strongly represented as the ‘victim’ in the situation. The listing technique used with “Her hair dishevelled, mouth flung open, lips swollen” creates impact as the powerful choice of language builds up a graphic image of the vulnerability of Nicole and suggests to the reader how the event has impacted upon her emotionally as well as physically.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator in this chapter tries to convey the theme of guilt, shame and fear. The theme…

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Certainly, one of the goblins’ treachery effects is the loss of the notion of time for Lizzie (V.449) and it previously happened to Laura (V.139). Despite having being attacked by wicked creatures, Lizzie walks home happily. The bouncing of the coin is like a victorious hymn for her, the proof that she has confronted and overcome temptation. She conserves her kind heart and thus her purity and vitality, which make her run home.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John, Sally, and their daughter Mary came into therapy wanting to help deal with current issues relating to Mary’s depression and self-harm. They had discovered that Mary had been occasionally cutting herself as well as isolating herself in her room for long hours. Sally had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, which was successfully operated on, and was in remission. From an object relations perspective much of the family’s relationship and way of dealing, or in this case not dealing with Sally’s cancer, was facilitating Mary’s depression. Sally’s cancer had been minimized due to its highly operable nature. Both John and Sally explained to Mary that it was unnecessary to talk about the cancer as her mother had been “cured” already, ignoring the intense feelings of loss, sadness, and anger by all the family members before the positive news. Although this pattern and unconscious rule in their family where issues of intense emotional content were not to be discussed, this highly traumatic event appeared to be the breaking point for Mary.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Just as poetry is a permanent mark of feelings that last forever on paper, tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever on the skin. Tattoos and poetry can easily be combined such as in Kim Addonizio’s sonnet, “First Poem for You,” the speaker admires her partner’s nature themed tattoos in a darkened room. This may seem to be a simple poem, but by utilizing tattoos as symbols, including tactile and visual imagery in her poem, and using the sonnet as her structure, Addonizio laments about the true meaning of relationships and their longevity.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Macey Aven: Poem Analysis

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Peppers, parsley, pansy, pickles, and pears. Carrots, cabbages, celery, and cactus.There’s also rodgersia, rampion, and rapunzel.Oh, how I love my plants!…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The entire poem is written with a tone of sadness or depression. This evokes the senses of the reader by being able to sense how the girl is feeling and see how the words of others affect her. It can be pictured, this little girl who plays with the Barbie doll and it is just a toy, but to others it is the appearance that society wants and she soon realizes that when a fellow classmate hurts her with mean words. She can not go on with the fear that everyone sees her as imperfect or flawed, so in the end she gives up on trying and eventually gives up on herself. A simile in the poem, “Her good nature wore out/like a fan belt,” the message here is that she has given up on everything.…

    • 507 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Tracks" by Tina Jones made me think about my insecurities and problems I deal with as a woman and a person of color. In her poem she mentioned different levels of discrimination, insecurities and segregation that I could all relate to, but a quote that I related to the most was, "A generation of beautiful black women. Born and bred to believe that beauty belongs to everyone but them, so they dye and fry and try to fit in." Unfortunately, these insecurities that the media and society forces on us are reasons why black women damage their hair and wear weaves to disguise themselves to endeavor the impossible definition of perfection and respect. Without her saying it, I believe she didn't like school and was somewhat scared to go for many reasons.…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the Catholic Church continues to frown upon homosexuals, they continue to frown upon transsexuals to an even greater extent. They see it as even larger perversion of the (already perverted) homosexual lifestyle. At the risk of generalizing, I would argue that many transsexuals then find that they need someone or something that will not judge them and only treat them with the respect they need. La Santa Muerte helps to fill the void left by society in many North American transsexuals. With most people not liking what they do not understand or ca not explain, this makes transsexuals the perfect target for them and the Church. People cannot explain why there are transsexuals, they do not know how hard it is to be transsexual, and they…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While the children are outside playing, the mother “began to lick the crumbs from my sister’s plate” (line 19). When she is asked about licking the crumbs, she “quietly” admits that she has not had anything to eat in five days. The mother sacrifices her meals to make sure that her children are fed. The child felt guilty from not knowing what her mother was going through. This is the epiphany in the poem. Once Kayla realizes this, she carries this secret around until “it churned in her stomach like tapeworms ringed with razors” (line 38). Years later Kayla finally tells this secret to her sister. It just happened to be a day where she has had a fight with their mother. When the narrator gets to her mom she stands there calmy. The narrator then “hugged my Momma for all that I’d done wrong.”…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first line of the poem, “She wanted a little room for thinking,” states this common wish succinctly, and the following two lines, “but she saw diapers steaming on the line/A doll slumped behind the door,” utilize connotation to insinuate much more than a messy house or the presence of very young children. The steaming diapers represent the mother’s intensive labor and the slumping doll, her weary mood – perhaps becoming symbolic for the sleeping children or the mother herself. The…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This morning we went outside with the teachers and the children into the small playground. R wanted a cooking tool to knock these new homemade instruments, but he can’t (could not) find one. So (Therefore) when R asked me to help him to find a cooking tool, I told (asked) him “Can you wait for you turn as your friend M had first” I asked him that could he wait for the next turn because his friend M had it first, and he said “yes” (answered yes). After a short time wait, he found one cooking tool on the sandpit. Then, R played these instruments looks like a musician, and then, I asked R “shall we sing your favorite song together?” and he replied “yes, old Macdonald had a farm.” After singing song, child R glanced over his shoulder to knock the second pan and he listened what the sound of the pan makes. After a short time of period, he changed to use another hand to knock the second cooking pot again with highly concentration listened what the sound of pot makes. He showed a big smile face to me and carried on knocking the third cooking pot. When he knocked the third cooking tools, and he found that the sound was different from others, so he listened carefully.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compares Essay

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The fifth stanza shows the mother preparing her daughter for Sunday school, and gives us a better understanding of how young the girl really is. The poem describes white shoes on her feet and white gloves on her “small brown hands.” This physical description demonstrates the daughter’s purity and youth, which heightens the emotional impact of her…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Miss America By Day, Marilyn Van Derbur told her story of incest, that she experienced throughout her childhood. She explained how she was sexually abused by her father, from age 5 to the time she was 18 years old, when she was able to leave her home and go off to college. Marilyn wrote about how her father would come into her room, at least once a week, to molest or rape her. The visits became more frequent when she was a teenager. She would lie awake in her bed, curled up in a tight fetal position, anticipating when he would come into her room and violate her. When he would come in at night, she would pretend she was sleeping throughout the whole defilement. The waiting was very traumatic for her on its own, because even if he didn’t come in a particular night, she still wouldn’t be able to go to sleep or relax her body from the fear of his next “visit.”…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays