Introduction
Different literary forms are meant to communicate different messages. Often, the writing may not be direct, hence the need to be able to understand and interpret the literature. When composing any piece of work, authors tend to be influenced by their feelings, background, environment, the events, situations and happenings around the time of composure (Dupras 57-60). However, as the reader goes through a piece of work, he/she is likely to understand it in a completely different perspective.
Different readers will interpret the same literature differently. The reader interacts with the work, and then reflects and relates it to his/her environment, background and happenings (Kuntz and Martinez 76). The message received by the reader may therefore be quite different from the author’s intended message in writing the literature. It is therefore very important to fully understand, generalize, summarize, analyze, and evaluate the literature in context. This notwithstanding, all literature works, be it poems, stories, songs or proverbs are meant to pass a message to the reader. This message could either be direct or hidden (Hirtschberg and Terry 99).
Cathy Song is one of the poets who have had an outstanding performance in the literary world. She is from a Korean origin, and due to the nature of her father’s job-pilot, the family travelled a lot which brought different experiences to her life, prompting her to become a writer (Metzidakis 32). Most of Cathy’s work revolves around women and motherhood. The poem interpreted in this essay, ‘The Youngest Daughter’ is one of her several literary works. Thisu essay aims at interpreting it and arguing for the given interpretation.
An analysis of Cathy Song’s Poem, “The Youngest Daughter” by Cathy Song
The poem is a monologue. The writer is a daughter, the youngest in a family of six, taking care of her mother who is not only aging, but has been in bed for long time due to the diabetic disease she has. She addresses the theme of frustration, arising from weariness, exhaustion and giving up on the sick mother. She suggests this by her opening remarks in line in the first line ‘the sky has been dark for many years.’ This has been used metaphorically to depict of how she doesn’t like it and feels it’s a problem that has been for long. The darkness has been used symbolically to imply of how dark and hopeless the situation has been. In real life, the night darkness is always sure to clear when the dawn breaks and all wait for the arrival of dawn with expectations. However, for the daughter, this has not been the case.
The darkness has been for longer period than expected. The expectations that come with the dawn of a new day are meeting frustration. In this case, the expectation of the mother getting well, so that the daughter can resume her normal life is not coming forth, hence a feeling of desperation. In the third and fourth line, the writer employs a simile to liken the girls’ pale and damp skin to a rice paper, which she feels has been as a result of the many years of darkness in taking care of the sick mother. She suggests that the problem could be hastening the daughters’ aging process. This is reflected when she says that her skin feels like the way her mothers used to feel before the sun parched it, in lines 5-7. This suggests that though she is young, she can recall a time her mother’s skin was as hers is at the time of writing.
A mood of desperation is suggested as the second stanza opens. The writer gives the idea that the situation is getting worse, building up yet again on the tarrying night. This is evidenced as she states that it is lately when the hands react on touching the eyelids. (Line 8) This suggests that she has been weeping due to the distress. The intensity of the pain on the writer is on the rise. She symbolically uses heat from the eyelids hot enough to make her hands react as though they were in contact with hot objects (Line 10&11.)This implies that the situation is getting worse. The fact that the heat is being felt in the eyelids could as well mean that it is affecting her in every possible sphere of life.
Hopelessness is further displayed as the writer talks of how the skin has changed its color. With the situation getting worse in stanza two, the skin is not only damp and pale as stated in the first stanza, but now aspirin-colored (line 12). The writer suggests that the effects she is getting are beyond ordinary. This is picked from her statement that her skin has migraine. In ordinary and real life, skin pain does not occur. She further suggests that her nights are seemingly long and she dreads them, building up on her words of how the sky has been dark (15- 16).
The opening of the third stanza suggests that the mother is already aware that the daughter is weary of her state. The mother however cannot help her condition. Indirectly she responds to the daughter who feels like she is being punished. The writer says that the mother’s voice was gruff with affection (Line 19). The writer further supports this by mentioning that the mother was in humor state, when the daughter wheeled her to the bath. The mother uses the opportunity to create jokes to the daughter to light up her face. The mother humorously compares her breasts to walruses. (Line 20-24). Despite the humor sense of the mother the, daughter is not amused. This is supported by her phrase that she scrubbed the breasts with a sour taste in mouth. (Line 26)Ironically, the humor items-the breasts, evoke irritation feelings in the writer. Their appearance flaccid appearance reminds her that she is not the only child, yet the burden has been left to her. This is supported by the phrase that six children and an old man have suckled the breasts (line 27). This stanza also informs us that the mother is diabetic since she has been receiving insulin injections (line 32).
The stanza also suggests that the writer is lost between being both caring and unmindful of the mother. This she suggests as she states that despite the scrubbing with sourness, she soaped the insulin injection spots slowly ( Line 33). She however again brings a picture of how lifeless the situation is and the long time it has lasted. This she suggests as she says it seems to have been always like that and in a sunless room. The sun is used symbolically as she speaks of a sunless room. This means there is a cold and non-live relationship between the writer and the mother (line 33-37).
The closing stanza depicts the mother as a hardworking woman, only limited by her health condition. This is supported by the phrase that she prepares the meal after the afternoon rest (Line 38-40).The writer on the other hand expresses that she is already bored and tired of the meal. This she supports as she says it is their ritual meal. She further expresses dissatisfaction with the meal as she gives a detailed explanation and suggestion of how little some of the ingredients are. She paints an image of the shred of gingered fish and only a slice of pickled turnip not being enough (Line 39-43). She further expresses dissatisfaction as she feels that the mother provides the meal as a token (line 42). The token however does not compare with the kind of work she is doing and the pain she is going through this as also supported by the fact that she says that they eat in their familiar silence (Line 44.)This further suggests the daughter doesn’t appreciate the effort of the mother despite her condition. It also emphasizes on how lifeless their relationship is.
Conclusion
The writer also informs us that distrust has set in between daughter and the mother. This emphasizes that the mother knows the daughter is weary and can leave any time. The writer also reveals that she daughter is planning of an escape (lines 45-46). The writer uses imagery as the poem comes to a close. The symbolic use of thousands cranes in the poem suggests that just as the cranes suddenly fly away with the breeze, the daughter can also decide to suddenly leave despite the mother’s efforts. The daughter feels that she all she is doing is to the mother’s health but hurting herself. This has been supported by the phrase that she is toasting to the mother’s health (line 49).
Works Cited
Dupras, Judy. Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays and Essays. Washington: McGraw Hill Publishers, 2003. Print.
Hirschberg, Stuart, and Terry Hirschberg. The New Millennium Reader. New York: Prentice Hall Publishers. 2002. Print.
Kuntz, Marshall, and Martinez, Nancy. Poetry Explication: A Checklist of Interpretation. Boston: G. K. Hall Publisher, 1980. Print.
Metzidakis, Stamof. Repetition and Semiotics: Interpreting prose Poems. New York: Summa Publishers. 1986. Print.