An Analysis Of Bram Stoker s Dracula - 1330 Words

Bram Stoker in Dracula imagines a â€Å"proper women† by demonizing Lucy ascribing to her traits of a wanton woman; a whore of a demon. A misogynistic attitude is popular in a patriarchal society, especially in the middle of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, Stoker unconsciously ties Mina’s behavior to emulate a woman of propriety. She is the very bane of what a progressive woman looks like but not when looking at her through a gynocritics lens. To prepare the reader for the ideology of the â€Å"new and proper woman,† Stoker gives Dr. Steward and Van Helsing separate spheres from that of Lucy’s and Mina’s Character. In chapter fifteen, they are now experts in the dealings and explanation of Lucy the human and Lucy the Un-Dead. As we read the chapters sixteen and seventeen, it is preconditioning us to follow the ways they are dealing with Lucy. It is justifiable to call her a voluptuous lipped â€Å"thing† without a soul. Their credi bility as learned men allow for them to penetrate a woman for the sake of her soul so she can take her place amongst angels. A woman in the nineteenth century is synonymous to the term â€Å"Angel.† Doing anything that is non-Angelic, like the suffragettes places the women to be the binary opposition to Angel; Demon. The â€Å"proper woman† has qualities like â€Å"purity, sweetness, and dainty-looking† (Dracula 211) (220). The interpretation would is more â€Å"factual† since it is from the â€Å"proper man†. Finally, Stoker uses the binary opposition, to present a figureShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis : Bram Stoker s Dracula1285 Words   |  6 Pagesfamiliar, further explaining that the â€Å"uncanny effect is produced by effacing the distinction between imagination and reality.† (Freud pg.396) Bram Stoker s, Dracula, captures the thematic zeitgeist of gothic Europe; the repression and trappings of a rigid and formal society masking t he carnal and base desires of the population at large. Freud s analysis of the uncanny, of attraction mixed with disgust, lays bare the underlying sentiment of stoker’s narrative; emphasizing on purity and virtue byRead MoreAnalysis Of Bram Stoker s Dracula1448 Words   |  6 PagesDracula is a widely known novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897. It is popular worldwide for its intense love story and backstory of the infamous Count Dracula. Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1847. As a child, he was very ill, so in an attempt to entertain himself, he read several books and listened to the horror stories his mother told him. In turn, Stoker became interested in ghost stories and began writing them. Gothic fiction was a genre that was extremely popular during this time periodRead MoreAnalysis Of Bram Stoker s Dracula 1997 Words   |  8 PagesBram Stoker’s Dracula was written in 1897. This was a time that the Victorian era and its values were changing and meeting the ir ends. The male-dominant world was evolving to an equal opportunity society. This meant women were no longer oppressed and limited socially, educationally, economically, or even sexually. The end of the Victorian era also called for growth in technology and medicines. Old ideas were diminishing while new ideas of the world were flourishing. Whether it be the pro femininityRead MoreAnalysis Of Walt Whitman s Dracula And Bram Stoker s `` Dracula ``1886 Words   |  8 Pagesestablished an impact worldwide. Writers such as Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, two Irishmen that know of Whitman’s writings through the poet’s popularity growing up as children and young adults, had become advocates of the controversial topics Whitman wrote about. Wilde and Stoker’s writing styles differ from Whitman’s: Wilde is known for his involvement with the Aestheticism movement and Stoker for his classic horror novel, Dracula. Both men have personally met Whitman on multiple occ asions in hisRead MoreSexuality In Bram Stokers Dracula1082 Words   |  5 PagesSexuality in Bram Stoker s DraculaBram Stoker s Dracula, favorably received by critics upon publication in 1897, entertained its Victorian audience with unspeakable horrors such as vampires invading bedrooms to prey on beautiful maidens under the guise of night. The novel s eroticism proved even more unspeakable. Received in the era of repression, it remains questionable whether Dracula s readership perceived the sexuality flowing from the page. An advocate for the censorship of sexual materialRead MoreFilm Adaptation Of Bram Stoker s Dracula1320 Words   |  6 PagesBram Stoker’s frightening tale of Count Dracula has struck horror into the hearts of many since it was originally penned. In 1987, Bram Stoker wrote the revolutionary tale Dracula that played off the fears of the people of the era. The plot and characters that make the novel great also translate nearly perfectly to cinematic adapta tions. Starting in the early 1900’s, directors have done their best to portray the terror that the original novel inspired. Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s DraculaRead MoreOral Dracula from a Reader and Femminist Perspective1443 Words   |  6 PagesBram Stokers Dracula an oral presentation Good Morning/Afternoon Today I will review Bram stokers 1897 novel Dracula, the approaches I will be using to reviewing the novel include the world centred approach, and the reader response approach exploring the themes of reader positioning and the authors intented reading and reader, then focusing on the world centred approach of the feministtheory. reader centred -attention on the reader -different readers from different social, cultural, religiousRead MoreBram Strokers Dracula: The Man Behind the Count Essay794 Words   |  4 PagesBram Stoker’s Dracula is a story of horror, suspense, and repulsion. The main antagonist, Count Dracula, is depicted as an evil, repulsive creature that ends and perverts life to keep himself alive and youthful. To most onlookers that may be the case, but most people fail to see one crucial element to this character. Dracula is a character that, though it may be long gone, was once human, and thus has many human emotions and motives still within him. Let us delve into these emotions of a historicallyRead More Intertextual Exchange in Carmilla, Dracula and the Historian1639 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Writers seldom duplicate their influential precursor(s); rather, they often work within a certain framework established by other writers or generic conventions, but vary aspects of it in significant ways† (Friedman 155). Sh eridan Le Fanu’s, Carmilla, Bram Stoker’s, Dracula and Elizabeth Kostova’s, The Historian, clearly engage in this intertextual exchange, as evidenced by their use of narrative structure and striking character parallels. Published in 1872, Le Fanu relates the story of CarmillaRead MoreA Common Concern Throughout The Victorian Era2100 Words   |  9 Pagesconformed to these roles and followed the gender expectations of their society. Bram Stoker s Dracula describes a post dated European setting in which most women are subject to explicit gender roles and stereotypes. The norm in this society is for women to be modest, prim and proper. However, the novel narrates the possibilities of a situation in which women don t conform and thus are scrutinized. Bram Stoker s purpose in Dracula is to express the threat faced by men when encountering women who are in

Exercise Is Not Something That I Do - 2034 Words

Exercise is not something that I do often, I think about it but don’t actually do it. I work out in my room or the gym about four times a month, meaning I only exercise 12 weeks out of the 52 week year. The lack of exercise is a key factor in the approach taken in the paper. After taking this class it has been reiterated how important exercise is in a healthy lifestyle. In high school I was very active but when I got to college my motivation slowed down tremendously. My sophomore year of college was the best year in terms of exercise, I had a steady gym schedule and I ate fairly well for a college student on a meal plan. Exercise is said to bring positive feelings of well-being and lowers anxiety and depression. I tend to handle stress†¦show more content†¦This plan will be broken into decades starting from my current age, twenty-one, advancing to my late eighties. As we have learned in class, it is important to maintain an active life both physically and mentally in order to live a truly healthy life and to live a longer, fuller life, so will incorporate e ways in which I can challenge my mind as well as my body. Family History As children my parents got us into sports and allowed us to remain active and involved in various school activities. At age eight I was in tennis classes and in high school I played tennis for all four years. My brothers and sister were all involved in various sports like baseball, basketball, football, track, volleyball, ball room dancing, and dance classes. Growing up we would go on walks and runs with my parents and older siblings for fun. In terms of eating, we were always taught to eat at home and prepare the food in the house and not eat out. Growing up we had a balanced diet of fruits, veggies, and protein. This knowledge and reflection will help with this plan because I can account for the motivation children may have on their parents. It has been said that children bring out the child in everyone, and as a child we tend to be the most active and the healthiest. In the present years the balance is a little off, everyone tends to cook for themselves and eat whatever is brought into the house. Now that we are

American Involvement in Somalia Free Essays

This is a continuation of my research into the American involvement in the Somali civil War between 1992 and 1994. This paper will attempt to fit the historical data into some of the various ideas put forth in the Kriesberg book, though, unfortunately, the war did not really develop in the same way that the book might describe due to the complete failure of the mission and the brief time of actual American combat. Nevertheless, Kriesberg will provide a useful theoretical starting point to understand this conflict and its ultimate lack of resolution. We will write a custom essay sample on American Involvement in Somalia or any similar topic only for you Order Now The civil war that the US was supposed to stop continues without resolution to this very day. 1. Escalating the war took place in three rapid stages. All of these were American led operations, though under the cover of â€Å"UN Resolutions† which seemed to provide some kind of a moral stamp on the operation. The three stages were all complete failures from every conceivable point of view. Conventionally, they are called, in order UNOSOM I, UNITAF and finally, UNISOM II, which was finally terminated in 1994 (Lyons, 1995, 39). All of these acronyms concern either UN or US projects in Somalia. The first, in 1992, saw the deployment of only a handful of peacekeepers once most of the factions in the country agreed to some kind of mediation. But as soon as the grand total of 50 men landed, the factions refused any kind of negotiation and immediately resumed fighting. UNOSOM I was considered a bad joke at best. However, the US took over operations a brief time later under UNITAF, which was basically an American controlled operation. In early 1993, the US sought to intervene under the cover of both UN diplomacy and under the idea of â€Å"humanitarian intervention,† a concept where the state intervening does not have any real political capital to gain, but is intervening to save lives and avert famine. But the reality is that the US was interested in controlling Somalia for one reason: to keep it from falling into the hands of the Islamic movement of General Mohammed Farah Aidid (Lyons, 1995, 39-42). Aidid very quickly succeeded in making himself the most powerful faction leader in Somalia, and in his turn, made himself the anti-American and anti-Israeli leader in the war, holding to a semi-communist kind of Islam that sided with Sudan and, to some extent, Syria in the middle east (Schultz, 2006, 92-94). Aidid also condemned American involvement in the Iraq war. Hence, very quickly, the Clinton administration dropped both te UN and the â€Å"humanitarian† cover and sought to capture Aidid at all costs. Aidid was a threat to both US and Israeli interests for several reasons, dealt with in detail in the last paper: first, Somalia is an oil-rich state, second, it helps control access to the Red Sea, and third, it controls access, to some extent, to the equally oil-rich state of Sudan, where western backed rebels in oil rich Darfur are fighting the Islamic state of Omar Bashir (Kreitzman, 2006). Hence, Somalia was considered a strategic country on all counts. The American force was fought to a draw by Aidid’s forces in the famed 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. It was not long after that that both UNITAF and UNOSOM II, engaged in at the same time, withdrew its forces from Somalia. 2. There was an US brokered attempt to create a unified faction against Aidid in Ethiopia (then a pro-US power in the region), but negotiations quickly broke down (Lyons, 1995, 40-41 also 45). But this is where the American failure can be more closely analyzed. First of all, the Americans approached negotiations as a purely zero-sum game (Kriesberg, 2006, 273). The point of negotiations in 1993 was not to end the war, but to escalate with, with a strongly western backed coalition against Aidid. Since there was no real understanding of the ideas of all factions, political or religious, the US also, secondly, stereotyped its opponents: the Muslims were evil, foul and, worse, anti-Israel, and the others were secular and progressive (Kreisberg, 2006, 280). Hence, both due to the zero-sum question as well as stereotyping, the US could not successfully operate on Somali territory, even if the number of soldiers escalated higher. The zero-sum aspect of this is also connected to what Kriesberg calls â€Å"cognitive dissonance† in warfare–that is, an intervening party must convince themselves that the official reason that one is intervening is the real one (Kreisberg, 2006, 157). Of course, no serious person could possible pull that off, and hence, there was a schism in the mentality of the intervention from day one. Since the real purpose behind US intervention was to install a secular government friendly to American interests, and the â€Å"humanitarian† rhetoric went out the window at an early date once Aidid became powerful and popular, the official purpose and the real purpose of the intervention became an â€Å"open secret† early on. This could only hamper American efforts. As General Montgomery pointed out, the issuance of UN Security Council Resolution 814, with tacit U. S. support, clearly changed the mission. â€Å"For us there was no such thing as mission creep,† he pointed out, â€Å"because it was very clear at the outset what we were supposed to do. † While the resolution was unrealistic and overly ambitious, General Montgomery insisted the taskings in it were clear enough (Hoffman 2004). Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, â€Å"mission creep† was the order of the day. Directives from Washington differed from directives from the UN. Washington wanted Aidid, while the UN wanted some kind of humanitarian action. But this is not atypical from upper brass in the military establishment, as much a political position as a military one. Ultimately, there was a superficial resolution of the problem by saying that the reason the humanitarian disaster occurred was that Aidid made sure the food aid did not get to â€Å"the people. † This assertion has no evidence to underscore it. But even more, the US got involved in an obscure part of the world for oil and Israeli interests. The US had no real comprehension of the religion and culture of either the Islamic or Christian Somalis. The US, as mentioned in the last paper, failed miserably in the propaganda war once Aidid made it clear that the US was an invading and imperial force working at the behest of wealth and power. This set of ideas helped bring Somalis to his side, and made the US look bad. But American ignorance of the real situation and the perception of US interests among the common population ultimately forced the withdrawal of all troops by 1994 with little having been done. 3. The consequences of this intervention were absolutely disastrous. Since 1992, roughly 1. 2 million Somalis have lost their lives. Starvation is the order of the day, and the war continues without abatement. Aidid himself was killed in a gun battle in 1996, yet his movement remains strong. But more abstractly, there are indirect consequences. First, the US realized that any serious commitment needed a large number of troops with strong air support. Second, the approbation of the UN, while having no military value, has a strong degree of moral value. Third, Americans are not interested in long term warfare, unless a major event can take place where Americans are killed. Hence, 9/11 gave both the US and the Israelis a green light to take care of their political problems with little fallout (at least in the short run). Fourth, there needs to be a constant threat to keep Americans interested. Since Somalis did not threaten Americans, it was very difficult to maintain American interest or support. But constructing an ubiquitous web of Islamic terror cells might keep Americans interested. In reality however, none of these lessons were truly learned, and the realist approach to intervention still maintains itself: the US will intervene whenever its financial interests are concerned, which includes protecting the hated state of Israel at all costs to her prestige or credibility. Even more, the UN ended up looking like a paper tiger, a tool of US interests and without a clear agenda of its own. It was a disaster in every significant way. 4. The sort of warfare one is looking at in Somalia is clearly â€Å"zero-sum. † The US intervened solely out of an interest in African oil and the control of access to the strategic Red Sea. The failed negotiations in Ethiopia produced no results because of American ignorance and the refusal of US negotiators to permit Aidid to have any say in the matter. Hence, it became officially clear (contra the words of General Montgomery above) that the real purpose of the mission was to keep Aidid away from power at all costs. But in rejecting the most popular and powerful faction in the country and trying to cobble together a coalition of small and non-ideological factions led to complete disaster, and American intelligence completely failed to figure out who was who, and who wanted what (Razack, 2004, 44). The US failed due to the â€Å"social psychological† atmosphere that they themselves created (Kriesberg, 2006, 147). Aidid saw through the American purpose from the outset, which permitted him to construct an Islamic nationalist base that proved very popular. That was a nut that the semi-committed Clinton administration could not understand or crack. Furthermore, organizational structure of Aidid’s forces also changed (Kriesberg, 2006,158). As he became more and more popular, it became clear that his organization became more powerful, regularized and disciplined. As mentioned in the last paper, Aidid began providing his own social services, paving roads and even contemplated minting his own currency, all of which the US was determined to destroy, apparently on â€Å"humanitarian grounds. † 5. In Conclusion, Kriesberg can help us understand the war in Somalia and the American failure in several ways. First, the US stereotyped its enemy and the Islamic world in general. Second, it approached the war as a zero-sum game, with everything on the secular warlords and nothing on Aidid. Instead of talking with him and respecting his popularity, the US attempted to destroy his very base of power and his functioning administration (Lyons disagrees with this, and claims the US did briefly negotiate with Aidid, pp 43, but it went nowhere). Third, the US entered this war without any real understanding of the mentality of third world people in an impoverished state. Like in Iraq, it was assumed that the US would be greeted as peacekeepers. Instead, they were greeted as occupiers (Razack, 2004, 10-11). Fourth, the US did not have a clear sense of mission. While official sources held that the mission was truly humanitarian, from the outset it was clear that the purpose was to keep Aidid and all like him from power and make certain a pro-US leader was installed in this strategic country. Aidid, a man of great military and political talent, took advantage of all these failures to eventually drive the US out of Somalia. Bibliography: Hoffman, Frank (2004). â€Å"One Decade Later: Debacle in Somalia. † The Proceedings of the Naval Institute. January. (www. military. org) Kriesberg, L. (2006). Constructive Conflicts. Rowman and Littlefield. Kretzman, Steve (2003). â€Å"Oil Security, War and the Geopolitics of United States Energy Planning. † Multinational Monitor, Jan/Feb. Lyons, Terrence (1995) Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention and Strategies for Political Reconstruction. Brookings Institute Razack, Sherlene (2004). Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Affair Peacekeeping and the New Imperialism. University of Toronto Press Shultz, Richard (2006) Insurgents, terrorists and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat. Columbia University Press How to cite American Involvement in Somalia, Papers

Kenyons The Blue Bowl Essay Example For Students

Kenyons The Blue Bowl Essay Kenyons criticism of burial and the mourning process and the manner in which it fails to provide a sense of closure for those who have lost a loved one is the main underlying theme in The Blue Bowl. Through her vivid description of both the natural setting and the grief-stricken emotional overtone surrounding the burial of a familys house pet and the events that follow in the time after the cat is put to rest, Kenyon is able to invoke an emotional response from the reader that mirrors that of the poems actual characters. Her careful use of diction and the poems presentation through a first-person perspective, enables Kenyon to place the reader in the context of the poem, thus making the reader a participant rather than a mere observer. By combining these two literary techniques, Kenyon present a compelling argument with evidence supporting her critique of burial and the mourning process. We will write a custom essay on Kenyons The Blue Bowl specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Kenyons choice of a first person perspective serves as one of two main techniques she uses in developing the readers ability to relate to the poems emotional implications and thus further her argument regarding the futility of mankinds search for closure through the mourning process. By choosing to write the poem in the first person, Kenyon encourages the reader to interpret the poem as a story told by the same person who fell victim to the tragedy it details, rather than as a mere account of events observed by a third party. This insertion of the character into the story allows the reader to carefully interpret the messages expressed through her use of diction in describing the events during and after the burial. The diction Kenyon employs for her description of the poems physical and psychological setting serves as Kenyons primary means for presenting her argument regarding the nature of the mourning process and its failure to help those who have lost loved ones. The poems first stanza begins as follows, Like primitives we buried the cat with his bowl. Bare-handed we scraped sand and gravel back into the hole(1-4). The first two words, like primitives, give the reader immediate insight into Kenyons opinion regarding the nature of the burial itself. She sees it as a means of coming to grips with death that is less evolved than the mental state of those that it attempts to help. When the first stanza is interpreted as a whole, the reader is able to understand that Kenyons criticism pertains to the symbolic meaning of the burial and its effects on those who perform it. By telling the reader that the cat has been buried with its bowl, Kenyon illustrates what intention the family has in burying n ot only the cats body but also in burying a main symbol of the cats life, which is to eliminate the cats influence on their lives altogether, in order to attempt to move on. The futility of this attempt to scrape sand and gravel onto the cat in order to begin the healing process is illustrated by Kenyons careful diction in describing the cats resting place as merely, the hole. Since it is, the, hole, it does not in fact belong to the cat. The bowl is referred to as, his, bowl, yet the hole does not attain this same label. This difference in description allows the reader to see Kenyons main criticism regarding the nature of graves and post-mortem rituals that are intended to help those who mourn the dead cope, which is that once a living thing is gone only that which was part of the beings life can be permanently attached to it. Because graves and burials are not part of the actual life of the now-deceased, Kenyon urges the reader to devaluate their role in mourning because simply pu tting a loved one out of sight does not eliminate their existence. The next stanza describes the cat in great detail, referring to his long red fur, the white feathers between his toes, and his long, not to say aquiline, nose (5-9). This description is used as proof of the inability of a burial to provide the sense of closure that it seeks to provide because of the manner in which the memories of the cats likeness immediately consume the minds of those who are supposed to have just let go of such thoughts through the burial of the cat. Through a careful analysis of Kenyons diction in the first two stanzas, the alert reader is able to understand Kenyons argument regarding the failure of burial and attempts to merely let go in helping the psychological well-being of those who are in mourning. .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 , .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .postImageUrl , .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 , .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:hover , .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:visited , .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:active { border:0!important; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:active , .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4 .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uf7dc96aa30b477c1faa08d40ee46fca4:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Pearl Harbor not a surprise EssayThe second two stanzas of the poem proceed past the burial to describe, through careful diction and the employment of a first-person perspective, the emotional state of the family after they are supposed to have said goodbye to the cat and finished with its burial, thus providing Kenyon with empirical evidence to support the claims she makes in the poems beginning. Immediately after the burial, the family, stood and brushed each other off, which Kenyon uses as a symbolic representation of the elimination of emotional burden that the burial is supposed to bring in the mourning process. They go on to remind the reader that, there are sorrows keener than these. Kenyons use of this statement attempting to minimize the impact of the cats death provides yet another reference to the falsity of the closure that mourning is supposed to bring when the events of the next stanza are interpreted. The last stanza describes the events following the supposed end to the mourning process by telling the reader that the family worked, ateand slept, which would indicate that life resumed as normal had the fact that they remained silent the rest of the day, and that during their normal daily routine they found themselves staring as much as they were performing their other tasks. Since it can generally be assumed that a normal family would not remain quiet for an entire day and spend much of their time simply staring off into space, the inclusion of these two details can be seen as an attempt by Kenyon to show the reader that their lives had in fact not returned to normal, and that the grieving process did not end with a mere brushing off o f sand and gravel. The description of the singing robin as a neighbor who means well but always says the wrong thing in the last two lines provides for one last assertion that things had in fact not returned to normal by illustrating the familys reluctance to accept the reality of a new day without their loved one. Kenyon uses this rejection of the dawning of a new day as a final rebuttal of the idea that death is simply forgotten through mourning, thus allowing her to illustrate one last example supporting her argument regarding the failure of burial and the mourning process to provide a sense of closure for those who have lost a loved one. Through the careful use of diction presented through a first-person perspective, Kenyon is able to use The Blue Bowl as a medium for social commentary regarding what she sees as a primitive mourning process that does not help those who undertake it. Through a careful analysis of the poem, the reader is able to understand Kenyons critique of the mourning rituals that humans use to alleviate the grief caused by the death of a loved one and interpret the shortcomings that Kenyon finds. Kenyons use of perspective combined with specifically chosen diction enables her to present a social commentary regarding what she believes to be the inherent shortcomings in the emotional effects of the burial itself and the sense of closure it is supposed to bring yet fails to achieve during a typical period of mourning.