Formal Elements in “Woman’s Work” by Julia Alvarez Essay

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Literary works are a great way to convey the problems and essential topics that bother the author. Hence, this work will analyze a poem by Julia Alvarez called “The Work of a Woman.” The central theme in this paper is the role of women, which is often overlooked. Special attention during the analysis will be paid to the study of what kind of assistance artistic elements provide in conveying the main idea of the author.

First of all, it is necessary to gain an understanding of what the poem under study is and what idea the author wanted to convey when writing it. The title of the work, “Woman’s Work,” immediately leads the reader to think that the main topic will be the role of a woman and the labor that she invests daily for her family and home (Kozaczka 6). In the literary work, the author talks about his mother and how she took care of the house. Therefore, Alvarez focuses on what contribution she made to her development as a woman and a writer and how it affected her future.

From the very beginning of the poem, the author captures the attention of readers, trying to awaken their thoughts on the problem being raised. Thus, the rhetorical question “Who says a woman’s work isn’t high art?” immediately makes readers think about the role of a woman and her activities (Alvarez 1). The author describes with what trepidation her mother treated the cleaning of the house without missing the slightest detail (Gale, Cengage Learning 4). The girl had to sacrifice children’s fun and walks with friends because her mother kept her “prisoner in her housebound heart” (Alvarez 1). At the same time, throughout the whole poem, there is an emphasis on the fact that everything her mother did was art.

Thus, the following formal element in Alvarez’s poem becomes a comparison. Henceforth, the line “Keep the house as if the address were your heart” compares the house with the heart, which places particular emphasis on the importance of this place. She emphasizes that for her mother, as for any woman, the house is a place where love, peace, and tranquility reign and which should always be in order and clean. In addition, it is a place where the whole family can come together and forget about the difficulties that the world puts in front of them. Perhaps that is why the author’s mother pays so much attention to domestic choruses.

Moreover, another technique used by the author when writing work is lexical repetition. This technique consists of the deliberate repetition of some words or constructions. Consequently, this occurs in such lines as “keep the house as if the address were your heart” and “housekeeping paper as if it were her heart” (Alvarez 1). This technique helps Alvarez to focus on the importance of women’s work, which mothers and wives perform daily. Moreover, the author notes that for them, it has a very significant value, equating it with art.

Despite the above-mentioned formal elements, which were used by the author in the poem under study, the main one becomes imagination. This tool is one of the most effective in achieving the primary goal of encouraging the reader to think about the proposed topic. Therefore, in the poem, many lines describe almost the entire process of cleaning the house. For example, “We’d clean the whole upstairs before we’d star downstairs “or “she’d shine the tines of forks, the wheels of carts” (Alvarez 1). Thus, the author emphasizes how delicately and responsibly her mother treated her household duties.

The use of such vivid and rich descriptions helps to create a clear picture of how the author’s lifestyle was arranged when she lived in her parents’ house. Moreover, the use of allusion in conveying the meaning of the house and the influence of the family, especially the mother, on Alvarez is particularly effective. As a girl, the author tried to resist the constant duty to help her mother in cleaning. However, further, she says that “I struck out…but became my mother’s child” (Alvarez 1). This shows that the teachings were not in vain, and the woman transferred the acquired experience to her personal life.

Thus, this research paper was engaged in the analysis of how formal elements in Julia Alvarez’s poem “The Work of a Woman” helped in conveying the main idea. Comparison, allusion, lexical repetition, and the use of imagery were highlighted among the main artistic tools. All of them helped Alvarez convey that the work of wives and mothers is excellent to work and should be respected and recognized. Moreover, at the end of the poem, the author shows how much the influence of her mother affected her life as an adult woman, who, just like her mother, works on her art, keeping it as if it were a heart. In addition, in addition to the contribution of the mother, the author also emphasizes the importance of the house and why it is so valuable for housewives to keep it clean and tidy.

Works Cited

Alvarez, Julia. “Womens Work.” Genius, no date. Web.

Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Julia Alvarez’s “Women’s Work.” Cengage Learning, 2018.

Kozaczka, Grażyna J. Writing the Polish American Woman in Postwar Ethnic. Ohio University Press, 2019.

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