Preview

A Martian Sends a Postcard Home- Essay on point of view

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
842 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Martian Sends a Postcard Home- Essay on point of view
Joe Quinn
Ms. Sandy Rankin
February 12, 2013
Point of view paper
Essay 1- “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
Prison is a very dark and desolate place that presents the feeling of being trapped. Chris Rain in his poem “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” talks literally about how a Martian is confused about everything on Earth. Raine’s dad was a former boxer and then became a bomb armorer for the British army, so maybe somehow Raine was exposed to prisoners of war and some kind of prison at some point in his life. Most analysts believe that the poem is simple and literally is about what the title suggests, but really it could be discussing the Martians feeling of being trapped and wanting to go home. Raine provides us with many analogies about the Martians inability to do stuff which could coincide with the barrier between freedom and being trapped like prison. Michael Vick, a pro football player, has a very interesting description of prison, of being trapped which provides a very interesting analogy that can be made with Raine’s lines about the Martian.
The poem provides many analogies that could represent the feeling of entrapment. For example Raine says “Model T is a room with the lock inside—a key is turned to free the world”. Raine is making a reference to the martian being confused and doing everything backwards compared to a human. Raine even makes mention of some sort of hauntings as he mentions ghost cries and creepy sounds that wake you up. Even more he talks about time going by as your tied to the wrist and “ticking with impatience”. It is amazing how confused the Martian is, he is trapped in a deeper meaning wanting to be free. At the end Raine provides his audience with something very interesting. He uses an analogy where the Martian is comparing the bathroom to a prison by saying it is a punishment room with only water. This really sets off an idea that Raine could possibly be referencing a prison in his poem.
In the real world there are many

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Case Study Athina

    • 1856 Words
    • 8 Pages

    We are writing to you on behalf of IV Consulting Group after closely examining the financial statements of your national retail and commercial building supplier chain, Athina Building Supplies Ltd.’s. We have stumbled upon several issues, which will be discussed in detail below.…

    • 1856 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bradbury pays an extraordinary amount of attention to physical beauty, familial ties, and American History, in The Martian Chronicles. Many of its stories were written to stand alone. Through the span of the book, the readers are able to visualize a cause and effect theme and foresee a relative connection and bond with each individual section of the book, as the storyline progress. The book is a fictional account of the colonization of Mars, while pondering the question if humanity is ready to frontier Mars or ready to approach other lifeforms. NASA repeatedly sends teams to explore; finally, one of them is successful.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem begins with a comparison between the colorful, alien saris made of “cloth from another planet” and her own “dull null Navy” that she wears every day. If you dig deeper, however, the implicit interpretation is how the speaker traps herself in a cage like the zoo animals. Claiming her able body is her bars, she cannot be noticed like the other zoo animals. She compares herself to the “white rat the foxes left” instead of the wondrous zoo animals people flock to see. She sees herself as forgotten and wants to break free of her monotonous life. Instead of being the someone without complaints nor comments, the subject wants people to wonder at her like she wonders at the saris as they walk…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In, “The Jail,” John Irwin describes what it is like for a criminal to initially be arrested and further processed into a prison. It is at this time that a person first experiences a complete loss of freedom. Before, they had choices and could do as they wished with their lives, whether it be positive or negative. Once under arrested, these people have arguably less rights than slaves did hundreds of years prior. They have to be told when to sit, stand, where to walk, and when they can eat. I do not want to be misunderstand and say that this is always a bad thing. These measures are sometimes necessary in order to control and manage people who have not been able to abide by society’s laws.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the book, A place to Stand, by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Baca writes about prison and how being incarcerated can have impact on a person and their family. With the most beautiful, strong and poetic language, Baca tells us the story of all the people who faces difficult times in order to find their place in the world. Baca always felt like he had no place to stand in society because, all of his life he was put down by his family and friends. From the age of five Baca experienced his dad and uncles going in and out of jail from being addicted to alcohol. Baca knew he would eventually end up in jail sooner or later because that’s what he had experienced all of his life. Baca writes, “Whether I was approaching it or seeking escape from it, jail always defined in some way the measure of my life” (3). Baca felt that his life would always head in the wrong direction because of his family issues. Baca shows being in prison can cause a lot of emotional impact on a person’s life, as well as affect the community.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "Prison is about failure normally, and how we are reminded of it each day of every year. Drama, and self-expression in general, is a refuge and one of the only real weapons against the hopelessness of these places."…

    • 3512 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When we think of a dungeon or a prison we automatically think of some sort of chains or bondage but in this letter we see a dungeon that is more real in this time period than any other, segregation and racism. In the 1960’s the United States was in a state of great distress with all of the racism that was consuming it. It’s own citizens were being attacked, sprayed with powerful water hoses, and were even murdered for not what they represented as a member of society but just for the color of their skin. This letter exemplifies what many people in this time period had to go through every day of their life.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prison experiences are shared by those who spent much time behind the bars and most of the experiences shared exemplify how cruel the prison system really was showing that no rehabilitation was occurring due to an excess in punishment. The Los Angeles Times published an article, “Cruel and Usual Punishment in Jails and Prisons,” in which ex-prisoners were interviewed and shared stories of their time in prison, many of which showed how corrupt prisons have truly become. The stories described prisons as appalling and cruel, one prisoner describe being handcuffed every day to his bunk while he had to remain only in his underwear, another prisoner described how it was to live in a cell located directly under broken toilet pipes for weeks resulting…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anyone who has ever been to prison can testify about the harsh nature of that kind of facility. Rehabilitation has taken a back seat to punishment which has caused a very difficult transition between prison and the outside world. In the 70’s, the popular idea of prisons was to build more prisons, which will get criminals off the streets. In theory that sounds right, but in practice it has shown to be highly ineffective. Etienne Benson, with the American Psychological Association, delivers analysis around the topic by explaining the historical context while also giving reason to distrust the system.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Julian E., B. (2000). INTERVIEW; Life as a Jailer. New York Times Book Review, 6. Retrieved March, 7, 2011from EBSCOhost.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Willy Tragic Hero

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Death of a Salesman reveals the story of an American man confronting failure in a success-driven society and shows the tragic path which eventually leads to his suicide. Willy Loman believes in what he considers the promise of the American Dream wholeheartedly, which is based on the Declaration of Independence stated by Thomas Jefferson in 1776: "We believe that all men are born with these inalienable rights - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."(Malone, 28)…

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Expectations Essay

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Prison is a very grim and doleful place for humans in which everyone might experience once in their life physically or mentally. The theme of imprisonment is demonstrated frequently in many works of literature, as many characters must struggle with the reality of their prison whether it is a physical or mental prison. In Charles Dickens’s bildungsroman novel, Great Expectations, the characters Miss Havisham, Estella, and Pip must struggle and endure physical and/or mental prisons.…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Federal and State Prisons

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There are so many different types of prison systems in the world these days, it can go from a stay of one year to a stay of life without ever having the chance to have freedom back meaning life without parole. Once the words are uttered to someone that is something that can either break you or make you realize that, you have not only destroyed your life as you knew it but you have destroyed your freedom. Prisons have people that have done things that are against the law, the prison systems are growing larger by the moment because of people, feeling that they are outside the law as they live their lives.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper Essay

    • 707 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The wallpaper symbolizes a prison by the pattern the narrator recurrently sees every day of her stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper. The formless pattern keeps the narrator absolutely fascinated, to the point where she becomes obsessed with the want to solve it. “Round and round and round---round and round and round---it makes me dizzy” (7). The narrator watches the patterns for hours trying to figure out how it works until she is enthralled by the complicated works. Finally after days of watching the patterns, she starts to see a woman behind the pattern, obviously trapped and imprisoned. “And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern---it strangles so…” (7) This woman behind the pattern symbolizes the narrators’ freedom, dreams, and hopes; it represents her imagination. At the moment, she is trapped behind the wallpaper because the narrator is trapped in real life by her husband, who keeps the narrator in the room, forbidding her to write.…

    • 707 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When one thinks of being caged, he or she may think of a bird being put in a cage so it can’t fly away. Or a person may think of a criminal caged by their jail cell bars, enclosing them off from society. However, in the short story, The Lamp at Noon, written by Sinclair Ross, a clear tone of desperation is shown through symbolism, confirming the harsh effects that the 1930’s dust bowl had on a family but specifically on a character named Ellen. Ross displays how the character Ellen is feeling very stuck in where she is living and also feeling trapped in a life she no longer wants to live in.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics