Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
The Shaping of the past
How Theodore Roethke’s past shaped his future.
Is every person unique?
This is a person…
This is a a person
!!YES!!Even twins are unique in some way
Two schools of thought on the uniqueness of man
Each person is either born or created to be a certain way and that is what determines how they will be.
Every person is born equal and it is the experiences they have in life that determine who they will be.
Actually…It is a combination of both but leans closer to the experiences than birth side. What really makes someone a unique person is are the things they’ve encountered throughout their life and choices they’ve made during those encounters.
Theodore Roethke’s past greatly dictated his poetry as well as his state of mind as he got older.
Two Facts
Two simple facts can be used to help us better understand Roethke and his poetry.
His father owned Greenhouses His father died when he was fourteen
His Father Owned Greenhouses
His Father owned Greenhouses
Knowing his father owned greenhouses lets us know that the father described in My Papa’s Waltz was indeed Roethke’s father
He was a rough man who was firm but had a soft side for nature
He drank whiskey, romped about, had rough knuckles and dirty hands
Rabit TrailExpanding on the Greenhouses…
Child on top of a Greenhouse
This poem gives a detailed personal experience of Roethke’s
It tells us that his father grew flowersUse of the word “accusers” foreshadows
that he was doing something he knew he should not be
It ends with everyone fearing he would get hurt.
A modern example of the same type of thing
His father died when he was fourteen
His father died when he was 14
This largely affected Roethke in that he implicated himself in his father’s death.
This led to his self-destructive and introspective manic depression
This depression is evident in most of his poetry, and as he aged and his depression worsened, it becomes even more prevalent in his poetry
CuttingsCuttings is one of many Roethke poems that is full of negative and “depressive” language.
Conclusion
It was Roethke’s past that directly influenced his entire life because he was so uniquely introverted. So much to the point that it consumed him mentally.
