What is the theme in this poem? & why?
Dusting
Each morning I wrote my name
on the dusty cabinet, then crossed
the dining table in scriptm scrawled
in capitals on the back of chairs,
practicing signatures like scales
while Mother followed, squirting
linseed from a burping can
into a crumpled-up flannel.
She erased my fingerprints
from the bookshelf and rocker,
polished mirrors on the desk
scribbled with my alphabets
My name was swallowed in the towel
with which she jeweled the table tops.
The grain surfaced in the oak
and the pine grew luminous.
But I refused with every mark
to be like her, anonymous.
- Julia Alvarez
the theme is boring
IDENTITY and the restriction of a child's identity by a parent.
i think this is about how GOD never keep a record of wrongs. He sees us "writing" on dusty furniture and He doesn't tire or cleaning up after us.
The poet wants recognition, to somehow leave her mark on the world unlike her mother who is content to erase the traces of human presence, she wants to be seen and to be remembered not anonymous like her mother.
Conformity and anonymity and its relation to the free-spirit. I don't usually analyse poetry so I'll leave the best answers to the experts but that's what I think about it. because the character created by the author seems like a free-spirited child rebelling in the face of a model of conformity (her/his mother).
that is a lame poem
I hope Mom didn't use linseed oil on the mirror. most of the imagry illustrates Mom reflecting overwhelmingly and not letting the light reach the her child.
the theme is... meow
Wow. Lots of lazy students on YA tonight.
The theme is: Maximum Laziness
it means the mother was a clean freak, and did not recognize the child's need for expression, and that I will not to be like her, means, i will not erase my child's fingerprints, or creative marks from the world!!
Wow, this is a great poem.
To me and this is an objective answer, I think the author is trying to convey that her "perfect" mother is more concerned with appearances than substance... wiping her name off of everything. also her mother is trying to make her conform to the way she believes the right way to live is. the daughter, not knowing exactly how to convince her mother that she is her own person, or having a mother who always thinks she is right, is making her own mark on the world by doing what the only thing she thinks will get through to her. the daughter needs attention, and probably some support but the mother focused on perfection, is superficial, and unwilling to give it.
* WHaT IS ThE THeME iN THiS PoEM *?
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