Violence In Martha Kinkade's 'Miscarriage'

Violence In A Language

The effect language has in the way it is said and presented is incredible. Although most people today are against violence they are unaware of how much they use it in their daily speech. The slight use of violence in people’s speech is where others learn their abusive behavior. It is from hearing the repeated use of this type of speech that begins to teach people that violence is acceptable. In “Winter’s Light” by Martha Kinkade, she writes poetry of past experiences of her life. Some of these experiences are violent, but by using more calm adjectives and verbs to describe the tragic events. She makes the actions sound less violent, but still is given the same effect. Through the examples of Kinkade’s poems, I will show that violent words
aren’t necessary to give a big effect to an action. In the first poem “Frozen at Ground Zero” Kinkade speaks of her Uncle Jim committing suicide. The way he committed suicide was in a rather violent manner, but the way it was said makes it sound a little calmer. She writes “Uncle Jim before you took to the quiet of a coffin and before you took a pistol to your head” (Kinkade 15). In this quote she speaks lightly of her uncles passing by suicide. Saying that her uncle took to the quiet of a coffin sounds tranquil as if he had just fallen asleep. Uncle Jim committing suicide is a violent action and although Kinkade does not use aggressive words to describe it, the effect is still strong the mood is just a little different. Instead of seeing the event as horrific the reader sees it as serene. Through the suicide Uncle Jim was able to escape from his problems so Kinkade puts it in a way that he is finally resting. Although one can put these events in peaceful manner, they must be careful that they do not make it seem like it is okay. In the article “Language and War,” Hardman says “We further make war an appropriate response to problems by inverting the metaphors when we met aphorizes the violent as peace.” Since Uncle Jim was at peace because his entire problem disappeared once he hit the trigger. This is violence preformed to take away all the other problems Uncle Jim suffered because he found peace as he laid himself dead. In the second poem “Pitchforks, Shovels, & Hammers” “The boy recalls how the bullets lit up the blackness of his mother’s room like falling stars” (Kinkade 25). His comparison of the light of the bullets to the light of the stars is a very odd pair. Although he is expressing how he felt and what he when his mother was shot. Expressing the loss of his mother the little boy expresses his feelings through violence. In the article Hardman states that “we try to conquer someone we love by dressing to kill, by fighting for love, by winning some ones love.” The boy would have killed his father if he reacted sooner to save his mother. In order for his mother to have lived he must have killed his Dad. In non-violent decisions he could have suggested on stopping his father on killing his mother. When a person hurts a loved one it is by revenge were one might only receive an overall peaceful mind because it would bring comfort that the person is suffering back. This is how the boy felt that in order for him to be in peace of mind he should have killed his Dad when he heard him kill his mother. In the third poem “Miscarriage” Kinkade writes about a time her sister suffered due to the stress and pain she went through with the disapproval of her father.
Through a difficult hardship with her father the family goes through a traumatizing event as they watch their sister/daughter have a miscarriage. As Kinkade gives a saddened explanation as to what happens to her sister “Without tears, I watched, as an ice cream bucket sloshed purple-red clots fished from the toilet and carried out of our lives with the quickness of a breath” (Kinkade19) .The violent scene can be pictured as to what has happened, as the sister loses the baby in just as a quickness of a breath. Hardman explains “Language is the instrument with which we form thought and feeling, mood, aspiration, will and act, the instrument by whose means we influence and are influenced, the ultimate and deepest foundation of human society.’ It is through the language which we understood how Kinkade felt and what she saw that gives a clear image on what is going on and how the family felt. It was a comparison of something positive like an ice cream bucket which is nonviolent but slosh of purple-red slots coming down which is
violent. People use violent words and metaphors in their daily life although they might not mean it as they say it. Sometimes they use violent words that wasn’t meant in that actual term but the words help express how someone is feeling at the moment. Hardman argues that the use of violent words and metaphors in our daily lives shows through us. In order to be peaceful people must speak and use peaceful words at all times. Violent language comes from what surrounds a person’s daily life; it is who one associates themselves with. Being in a home where one is not allowed to curse can really take away a violent environment because that keeps away a person from having bad thoughts or language. A person who expresses feelings through words, use violent words to express how an individual might feel. People sometimes think that a message is only received and understood through violent words. Sometimes people think that someone won’t understand what is being said unless curse words or violent words are used. In a much peaceful world many of problems start with language violence and then physical violence. If language violence can be stopped then the world will be at peace. Kinkade supports Hardman; people should take out violent language in their daily life in order to make peace in our society and also to show it through our language.

Works Cited
Hardman, M. J. “Language and War.” International Humanist and Ethical Union. International Human New, 02 July 2002. Web. 26 Mar 2014. http://www.iheu.org/fr/node/1140.

Kinkade, Martha. Winter 's light. San Diego: Montezuma Publishing, 2011. 25. Print.