O JUXTAPOSITION
JUXTAP OSITION? what is O
Juxtaposition is a placement of two words / descriptions / concepts literally or figuratively next to each other to present a comparison or contrast
Juxtaposition causes readers to stop and reconsider the meaning of the text through contrasting images / ideas / motifs
JUXTAP OSITION? what is O
Modernist poetry played extensively with juxtaposing images, inserting unrelated fragments together to create wonder and interest in readers
JUXTAP OSITION? what is O
BISHOP, PLATH, FROST, STEINBECK’S selected works
juxtaposition in
JUXTAPOSITION in BISHOP’S work
SANDPIPER
SANDPIPER juxtaposition in
The vast and large: “roaring alongside” “bound to shake” “Atlantic drains” “Sea of Atlas”, the 2nd
largest of world’s oceanic divisions
The power & immensity of the surrounding
The vast and large: “a sheet/of interrupting water comes and goes/and glazes over his dark and brittle feet”
Ability to encompass; the vastness meets the sandpiper
SANDPIPER juxtaposition in
The minute: “watching his toes” “His beak is focused” “spaces of sand between them” “grains” The smallest parAcle
for one to discern
Small parts of the body
A minute focus
SANDPIPER juxtaposition in
SANDPIPER juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
To mark and address the coexistence of the vast and the minute
SANDPIPER juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
Though the world is large and encompassing, one can still observe minute details, and find deeper meaning in the minute
THE FISH
THE FISH juxtaposition in
Beauty: “full-blown roses” “fine rosettes of lime” “like a big peony”
A romanAc reading; see parts of the fish as beauAful elements rather than ugly fixtures
Ugliness: “speckled with barnacles” “frightening gills,/fresh and crisp with blood”
A grotesque image; an existence of the undesirable
THE FISH juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
The recognition of ironic beauty – finding beauty in the ugly
THE FISH juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
Finding beauty in the ugly becomes Bishop’s revelation and victory – “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!”
THE FISH juxtaposition in
JUXTAPOSITION in PLATH’S work
YOU’RE
YOU’RE juxtaposition in
The pleasant: “clownlike, happiest on your hands” “my little loaf”
A suggesAon of clumsiness; affecAonate and upliFing descripAon
A warm image; tone of affecAon and tenderness
The pleasant: “snug as a bud and at home”
SuggesAon of a potenAal to bloom in beauty
SuggesAon of comfort and security
YOU’RE juxtaposition in
The less appealing: “moon-skulled” “gilled like fish”
A grotesque image
A darker and unseHling image
YOU’RE juxtaposition in
The less appealing: “trawling your dark as owls do”
Heaviness in image, suggesAon of something sinister
YOU’RE juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
The juxtaposition reflects Plath’s ambivalent attitude towards pregnancy and motherhood
YOU’RE juxtaposition in
JUXTAPOSITION in FROST’S work
BIRCHES
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Truth versus imagination: “I like to think some boy’s been swinging them./But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay/As ice storms do”
The persona fantasizes about a boy bending the branches.
The truth behind the bending is the ice-‐storm
Earth versus Heaven: world of the treetops and above
earth below
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Burdens; difficulAes and drudgery of the everyday
EARTH ”It’s when I’m weary of considerations,/And life is too much like a pathless wood”
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Earth versus Heaven:
”It’s when I’m weary of considerations,/And life is too much like a pathless wood
Dante’s Inferno: “I found myself obscured in a great forest,/ Bewildered, and I knew I had lost the way.”
Earth versus Heaven: EARTH
Dante firstly reaches upon a great forest in his journey to heaven. Frost describes life as a pathless wood
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Swinging and climbing away from earth, toward the ethereal, transcendence
Earth versus Heaven: HEAVEN
”Toward heaven” “I’d like to get away from earth
awhile”
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Permanence versus impermanence:
Heaven as a permanent escape; transcendence as a final desAnaAon
“not to return” “swinger of birches” Swinging to experience a temporary escape; A two way journey: “good both going and coming back”
Purpose and message:
After presenting the two ends of the spectrum, Frost chooses one end over the other
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
He rejects the true reason behind the bending of the birches, favoring imagination and escape, but…
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
… on the other hand makes it clear that a complete escape into heaven is not desirable (favoring reality, earth)
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
Purpose and message:
Resolution: Earth as “the right place for love” Life, an embodiment of imagination holds a potential for liberation
BIRCHES juxtaposition in
JUXTAPOSITION in STEINBECK’S work
The Chrysanthemums
The juxtaposition in
Entrapment/suffocation: “on every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot”
The landscape harbors a macro sense of suppression
Chrysanthemums
Hope: “positive yellow flowers” “there’s a glowing there”
SuggesAon of glimmer of hope
The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums
Strength :
Strength and power in exhibited in Elisa’s hands and movements
“terrier fingers” “over-eager, over powerful”
The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums
Vulnerability:
Tears as sign of weakness; vulnerability is demonstrated in Elisa’s behavior
“she was crying weakly-like an old woman”
The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums
Purpose and message:
Steinbeck presents Elisa as a complex character who possesses both strength and vulnerability
The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums
Purpose and message:
While her vulnerability may mark her predetermined or self-imposed role as a housewife, her strength marks her potential to be a liberated woman
The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums
Purpose and message:
The juxtaposition of natural elements in the setting helps to establish a macro sense of suppression with the presence of a possibility, or a spark of hope for Elisa
The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums
writers’ usage of juxtaposition in selected works
comparison of
Use of juxtaposition to EMPHASIZE on the subject of greater s i g n i f i c a n c e
Use of juxtaposition t o m a r k t h e CONTRADICTION and ENIGMATIC nature of the subject o f d i s c u s s i o n
Use of juxtaposition to EMPHASIZE on the subject of greater significance
Sandpiper
BISHOP
The minute, and the treasures found
The vastness
× let life be frittered away by greatness and complexity ★ find treasures in particularities
★ The ability to see beauty in ugliness is one thing worthy of celebration
Use of juxtaposition to EMPHASIZE on the subject of greater significance
The Fish
BISHOP
Beauty – part of her revelaAon and victory
Ugliness
★ Earth is the better place for love ★ Being a swinger of birches is the best place one could be in
Use of juxtaposition to EMPHASIZE on the subject of greater significance
Birches
FROST
ImaginaAon Earth Temporary escape
Truth Heaven
Permanent escape
★ Ambivalence towards pregnancy and motherhood
You’re
PLATH Use of juxtaposition to mark the CONTRADICTION and ENIGMATIC nature of the subject of discussion
Pleasant Less appealing
Use of juxtaposition to mark the CONTRADICTION and ENIGMATIC nature of the subject of discussion
Entrapment Strength
Hope Vulnerability
STEINBECK
The Chrysanthemums
O THANK YOU