How can one little song kill the bravest sailors? There are beautiful mythical creatures that are usually portrayed as birds or mermaids that attract innocent sailors by singing a song to lure sailors in to kill them. “The Sirens” and “Siren Song” both portray the Sirens and are part of the Odyssey. Although the two stories have many similarities, one of the stories is told by the Sirens perspective. That story is “Siren Song”.…
A mother is always supposed to want the best for her child and to look after her with care and compassion. Mother-daughter relationships is one of the most important relationships we will ever have. That being said, we get to see two different relationships in the memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua and the novel The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan. In the memoir, Chua’s tone is portrayed as a stressed mom, and Tan’s tone in the novel is expressed as resentful child.…
Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song" is a lyric that consists of nine three-lined stanzas that neither possess any recognizable rhyme scheme nor rhythm. The speaker of this poem is a mythical creature, a Siren, who addresses us, the audience, when she speaks of the victims whom she lured through the enticing song she sings. The overall tone of this poem is sarcastic and quite sinister.…
In Homer's Greek epic poetry, "Odyssey", the Sirens are described as devilish, mythical creatures while in Margaret Atwood's poem, the "Siren Song", are portrayed as innocent, mythical creatures trying to escape their fate while using tone, point of view, and monologue to each's advantage of portrayals of the Sirens.…
The poem ‘Siren Song’ may be believed to indicate an alluring woman who has no morals. This could be alluded to, as the term ‘siren’ might be highlighting a feigning and insincere female trying to manipulate a man. On one hand, the poem could be interpreted as one, which subtly complains about women in general, as Atwood claims that the song ‘forces men to leap’. Through generalizing ‘men’, the poet naturally separates the two genders in order to convey that no one man is individual, similarly to women. In contrast to this idea, the likelihood of Margaret Atwood writing so negatively about her own gender is slim. Additionally, another perspective of the poem could be taken where Atwood hints at her need for revenge on men and how they are shallow and unchangeable. The undistinguishable characters within the poem insinuates that there is more than one time in which the ‘siren song’ could be sung and how monotonous it can be. ‘It works every time’ could convey the idea that many women experience the monotony of men. Also, due to it being the last sentence, it seems that the song regularly ends negatively, much like her possible view of relationships as they work for a while and then they end suddenly.…
Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song” dramatizes the conflict between feminism and deceit. A theme in this poem is lies and trickery. The speaker is deceiving the readers the entire time without them noticing. She constantly talks about the audience being the only people worthy of knowing the secret of the song to charm them. The readers are so enticed in knowing the secret, they fail to realize she is tricking them with the thing they are so curious to find out about.…
Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” is a story that has been retold for generations; a tale of beauty, distress, and the ultimate betrayal. Margaret Atwood’s allusion, and the title of the poem itself set the stage for a story in which the readers already know the ending. As the siren leads her victims to their death, she seems bored, unamused, and ultimately unhappy. However, the siren uses her appearance, and her ability to gain sympathy in the minds of her targets, to lead them to their demise. Margaret Atwood is precise in using each aspect of her poem to guide the reader through her version of the “cat and mouse” game between the siren and her prey.…
“Context is all” (Margaret Atwood). Does this mean that there is no such thing as truth when considering knowledge gained through sense perception?…
And unlike the Odyssey, which portrays the Sirens as deadly alluring creatures, Atwood portrays the Sirens as a bored and unsatisfied creatures that are miserable on Siren Island. "I don't enjoy it here/ squatting on this island/ looking picturesque and mythical/ with these two feathery maniacs/ I don't enjoy singing", the author presents this perspective to contrast with Homer's portrayal. Through her use of poetic diction she is able to establish a different point of view of the Sirens, a more human point of view rather than a mythical one.…
A striking contrast in the story "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is the differences between the two women that Kurtz is involved with. His intended, a white woman who waits faithfully for him in Europe, and his fiery African mistress help to reinforce the themes and ideas in the story.…
In order to understand and compare the two works, it is crucial to understand the background information of the works of literature. Many people…
Atwood based love on how society portrayed it and not how she saw it. In the second stanza of the poem, Atwood describes love as something more powerful and valuable. As the poem continues, Atwood shifts into how she views the actual emotion of love. Her arrogance towards love had been bitter, however it was not towards love itself. Her emotions and attitude begins to become known when Atwood says, “Then there’s the two/of us.…
How can you implement tradition while remaining original? Many authors have been stuck inside this metaphorical box, and often do not know how they will escape. “Survival” by Margaret Atwood describes what seems to be the traditions of Canadian literature. When it comes to showing said traditions, “The Painted Door” and “Travel Piece” shows the traits “Survival” describes, but they manage to execute them in their own unique way. Both pieces of literature use negative events to advance their stories or even bring them to an end. They also put their characters into situations where they have to survive, though they have different definitions of what survival is. Only one author decides to use the Canadian tradition of making nature a cruel…
There’s always something odd and intimidating about being a guest at someone’s dinner party. When you walk in, the interior looks clean enough to be sold the next day, and the hosts are cheerful to an alarming extent. In in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee slowly chips away at this mask from all four characters until all that is finally left at the end of the final act is the revealing, truthful pulp of each person. This enormous culturally impactful play (and movie) could never be successfully adapted until an unlikely episode of a show called The Office would send similar shockwaves through pop culture in today’s context. This 21st Century take on the play aptly named Dinner Party would bear nods to the previous tension-filled…
Everyone is different, feeling different under certain circumstances, and this can lead them to the downfall of themselves or others. In Lauren Hillenbrand's Unbroken, a plane had crashed, only leaving 3 out of 11 people alive, and everyone is different and depending on the situation, they all have different survival rates. Louie Zamperini, who is one of our two survivors, uses his strong problem-solving skills, his quick thinking, and devotion to staying alive, let him and his crewmate stay alive. He uses his past knowledge to help save his pilot Phil, by helping him cover his unpleasant gashes(Hillenbrand). If it had not been for his resilience and problem-solving skills, they would not have been able to withstand anything.…