The Blue Estuaries Summary

In the poem, “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s* The Blue Estuaries,” written by Julia Alvarez, the speaker’s nonconformity motivates her towards enlightened self-interest and transformation. The significant diffusion of imagery, denoting by the dark imagery in the fourth and the chronicle in the sixth stanzas, “the darkening sky,” “my girl’s voice” and “a mirror reflecting back”, essentially advocating the tone of reverent and reflective. Emphasizing heavily on the speaker’s epiphany at the poem’s resolution, when the speaker decides to put the book back to the shelf instead of stealing it, the speaker transparently infers the abstract concepts of self and the search for self; ignorance and knowledge; and change and transformation.
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