Similar cases entail a poem that remarks on pursuing change full of resistance and criticism, even if it is imminent. Gilman uses the speaker and his neighbors to illustrate the subject of change and creates a division between him as the modern mind and the neighbors as the traditional minds. The speaker’s neighbors are portrayed as the average thinkers who do not see the looming change the human race is undergoing. Furthermore, the speaker addresses them and expresses that even if the change leads to challenges such as war, diseases, and sin, it will still yield, considering the enormous benefits that come with it. This paper seeks to analyze similar cases by looking into the poetic elements and the main ideas that explain the subject of change in the poem.
The poem dramatizes the conflict between reality and illusion, communicating the idea that change is inevitable and its evidence can be traced and felt only by the unusual ones. Gilman uses a metaphor to describe the speaker as one of their own makings. She uses imagery to express the speaker as a prehistoric being of the late Stone Age, who can see and do unusual things linked with the modern world. Line 1 begins with Gilman expressing the speaker as a Neolithic man: “There was once a Neolithic man” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). In a traditional setting, Gilman depicts the speaker as an unusual man with exclusive attributes of “unusually bright/ unusually clever he/ unusually brave” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). In the poem, the speaker uses hyperbole while addressing the neighbors about the dynamic circle of the world.
The speaker tells the neighbors that the world is taking a different facet and that new ways of living coupled with civilization and developments are yet to dominate their lives. For instance, in lines 12-14, he expresses: “My friends in the cause of time we shall be civilized/ we are going to live in cities/ we are going to fight in wars” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). The speaker’s voice establishes a tone of great hope, which sets the poem’s mood, becoming more important than the events of cruel reaction and resistance he later receive from the neighbors. Ironically the actions of the neighbors do not depict the reality. The neighbors resist the speaker’s notice of a change, citing that it is chimerical and absurd. Yet they exist in the Neolithic age due to the driving force of change. Their actions are simple at best, while the speaker’s argument presents facts that indicate an inevitable future change.
The poem starts with an image of a man of the late Stone Age period, during the prehistoric times before the emergence of the scientific revolution. For instance, Gilman states in line 1 of the poem: “There was once a Neolithic man” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). In line 2, Gilman uses a metaphor to describe the speaker as an enterprising Wight. This means the speaker is a curious man who attempts different activities to enhance his condition. His hard work and relentless exploration of various tasks enables him to make his chopping tools, as Gilman expresses in line 3: “who made his chopping implements.” From line 4 to line 6, Gilman uses epithets to describe the speaker: “unusually bright/ unusually clever he/unusually brave” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). The epithet expresses the extreme attributes of the speaker. It explains the personalities that make the speaker an outstanding figure to predict change in the future. An idea that his peers view as an illusion of negative thoughts. She also uses hyperbole to make emphasis on the speaker’s attribute. For instance, in line 5, Gilman expresses: “unusually clever he” this emphasizes the speaker’s extreme intellect, intensifying the image created in the readers’ minds.
In line 7, Gilman uses the symbol of a delightful mammoth to describe how difficult and complex it is to perform the speaker’s task: “and he drew delightful mammoths/ on the boundaries of his cave” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). A delightful mammoth is a charming enormous elephant-like mammal that existed many years ago. Gilman uses this symbol to emphasize the complexity and significance of the speaker’s tasks. She expresses the technicalities that one has to go through to identify and predict a new era in the human history, such as transitioning into new forms of life and the development of new technologies.
Moreover, Gilman uses the boundary between the caves to represent the line of change, which separates the traditional world from that of civilization, which is full of science and technology. The caves represent the stages of human development. For instance, the neighbors’ caves represent the traditional era, an age of simplicity that does not require complex tasks. On the other hand, the speaker’s cave represents the period of scientific creationism, a world full of technology and civilization. Furthermore, Gilman uses the symbol of a mammoth as a barrier to the modern world, indicating that the individuals of the Neolithic age have to perform big tasks to transit to the contemporary world.
In lines 12 to 15, the speaker uses anaphora to emphasize the change that the audience is yet to witness:
We shall be civilized!
We are going to live in cities!
We are going to fight in wars!
We are going to eat three times a day. (Mays, 2017, p. 600).
The speaker uses this style to evoke the audience’s feelings and persuade them to embrace the change and accept that modernity is the new fashion of human nature.
In line 15, the speaker expresses the theme of suffering. He states that “we are going to eat three times a day.” This shows that the speaker and the audience are suffering from anger, that they cannot even afford sufficient meals in a day. Therefore, by transitioning to the scientific revolution, they will reduce the suffering and be able to afford the three meals a day.
Ironically the speaker states that they are going to be civilized. Yet on the other side, he talks of fighting wars after the transition: “we are going to fight in wars” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). A world of real civilization does encourage battles; instead, it promotes diplomatic talks to resolve conflicts. Similarly, he articulates that the change will improve the quality of their life. For instance, in line 17, he expresses that they will turn life upside down to make it more precious. However, on the other side, in line 23, he claims that they are going to experience diseases and sins. This contradicts his argument for increased technology and civilization, where diseases and sin are not supposed to be the top of the argument.
Additionally, the exclamation style dominates the poem, starting from line 11: “we are going to live in cities!” Which expresses the speaker’s excitement and heightened emotion about the change and the benefits that come with it. This shows the happy and hopeful tone of the poem. In contrast, the exclamation has also been used to show shock and negative feelings of the audience toward the speaker’s subject, expressing a cruel tone.
In line 25, Gilman used onomatopoeia to create vivid imagery of the audience’s reaction towards the speaker. For instance, she expresses: “They all rose up in fury,” which shows the image of violent resistance to the change that the speaker is advocating for. On the other hand, in line 31, the audience expresses a climax style in responding to the speaker: “What a stupid life,” showing the central tension created by the speaker’s subject of change. At this point, the audience confronted the speaker’s subject with aggression and hostility, leaving the matter unsolved. In this way, the theme of aggression is evident, and it is through the attack that the speaker’s matter is opposed and left unsolved by the audience. The audience claims that for a scientific revolution to occur and bring the change that the speaker is advocating for, he must first change the human nature. Consequently, the poem uses an allusion in lines 27 to 28: “for prehistoric patients/ cometh quickly to an end” (Mays, 2017, p. 600). This brings to the reader’s mind the subject of change that forms the central theme in the poem.
In conclusion, Similar Cases portray the speaker’s intent to persuade his neighbors to embrace change and accept the unwavering emergence of civilization and technology, even with its adverse effects. The speaker acknowledges that the path to change may harbor negative behaviors like war, diseases, and sin. However, its benefits outweigh the drawbacks that come with it. The ordinary and short-sighted individuals like the persona’s neighbors are those that cannot understand the impact of the civilization and scientific revolution. Instead, they will resist it without giving it a second thought. Their main argument is based on the human nature of conservatism and rigidity to change. On the other hand, the clever and genius ones will weigh and comprehend the negatives and positives of the specific change. When the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, they will give it much attention and develop faster in the dynamic system of the world. The writer uses the unusually bright and clever characters against the standard symbols to distinguish the two sets of periods to provide a reliable and straightforward visual for the readers to understand the main subject of the poem.
Reference
Mays, K. J. (2017). The Norton introduction to literature. (13th ed.). Norton.