Diction And Irony In Margaret Atwood's Siren Song

In the “Odyssey”, Homer introduces the expedition Odysseus goes through to return to his native land. At one point he and his comrades must take the path that leads them to the island of the Sirens. The notorious sirens sing their sickeningly sweet tune to entice men to their eradication. Poet Atwood depicts the sirens in a calamitous facet. Both Homer and Atwood convey the idea that the Sirens pose a detrimental role through the application of imagery and diction.

Who you grow up to be, inspires what you will achieve. Margaret Atwood was very different from kids her age, she loved to write and explore the world rather than play with dolls. Her knowledge as she grew up helped her become a wise and profound writer. The way she lived and who she became because of how different her life was from other children’s made her want to achieve the most. Nature was one major thing that changed her life in a good way. Margaret Atwood 's family being involved in nature caused her interest to be discovered and later interpreted into poetry by impersonating humanity into society in “Siren Song.”

In Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward parallels the mythological story of Medea in order to highlight her representation of women. The use of Medea, who is embodied in various aspects within the three main female characters, allows Ward’s work to obtain a sense of universality to her narrative. Also with this incorporation, Ward is able to change the dominant perspective of “blackness” that has plagued southern literature written by African-American authors. Salvage the Bones occurs in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, following Esch,who has just found out she is pregnant, and her poor family just days before the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. Medea, an anti-hero, who succumbs to her own decisions and the demons of love represents a dynamic femininity, rather than the stereotypical aspect of which is what being a female is. Ward is able to show that women are not only powerful but can also be strong, independent yet vulnerable and ferocious. Through Esch, China and Hurricane Katrina with the corresponding Greek mythology, Ward shows her depiction of a women by addressing common stereotypes and rejecting them.

The allusion to the Sirens from Greek mythology in “Song to the Siren” and “Sirens Song” is included to show the detrimental effects of deceit and allurement on humans today, as well as the simplicity in manipulating them. The song “Sirens Song” is describing how a prostitute lures men in towards them by their beauty. It displays that “All he needed was to hear what was in front of him/ A song sang too many times” (Miss May I). The allusion to the Sirens exemplifies the level of deceit and manipulation that the harlot used on the man. Similarly to the Sirens, the harlot will cause harm and bring danger to the man she is tricking, showing how humans are just as easy to manipulate today as they were thousands of years ago. Secondly, in “Song

This poem starts with the narrator explain that the “song” of the siren makes men “leap overboard in squadrons.” The siren says that no one ever listens to her song because whoever does ends up dying. The narrator is then invited to learn the secret in exchange for the opportunity to rid her of the fact that she is a siren. The poem then talks about how it’s like being a siren and it doesn’t seems as glamorous or mythical as said in the story of Odysseus. The siren tells us to come close so we can learn the secret because we’re special and unique unlike the rest of the people who died. However, by the end, the speaker is also dead because of the siren’s song. The original myth about the sirens was mentioned in the story Odysseus. The sirens are considered enemies that would drive Odysseus’ crew to death if they listened. Odysseus was determined to hear their song though so he instructed his men to tie him firmly to the mast of the ship while everyone else had plugged

In “Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender,” Robert Kimbrough explores the topic of manliness in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Kimbrough begins by examining how masculinity and femininity came about in the first place, stating that the origin can best come from the “Judeo-Christian version of God the Creator” (179). The differences between males and females created a hierarchy in Shakespeare’s time, where males were on the top and females were on the bottom. Kimbrough states that the differences betweens the two genders are “matters of the mind,” and believes “Shakespeare sensed that so long as one remains exclusively female or exclusively male, that person will be ... denied human growth" (179). These “matters of the mind” are what Shakespeare tackles

A Greek poet named Homer wrote a famous epic poem called The Odyssey. The epic poem was about a brave lord, Odysseus, and his men encountering a few arduous obstacles during their journey back to Ithaca. In Book 12, “Beware of the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis,” translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Odysseus has to make a difficult decision about losing all his men to Charybdis’ whirlpool or only six to Scylla’s ferocious head. This story can relate to the poem, “The Sirens,” written by James Russell Lowell. Both men being compelled by sirens’ singing. A visual connection to the story and poem is Herbert Draper’s painting, “Ulysses and the Sirens,” the sirens compelling Odysseus. All in all, these three different representation of the story can have the tone of tense, disheartening, and malicious.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the most discussed works in English literature, provoking, just shortly after its publishing, a whole storm of indignation. Only six years earlier, J.K. Huysmans Á Rebours had been published in France and marked the apogee of its author. Both works are considered to be the cornerstones of symbolist, decadent and aesthetic writing. However, too often these works were (due to their scandalizing content) overlooked in their hermeneutics and mistaken for purely perverse, flamboyant or simply degenerated works. For the majority of the late-Victorian reader saw the decadent or aesthete as someone who was

In Margaret Atwood’s poem, “Siren Song” she says, “Come closer. This song is a cry for help: Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique” (21-24). This part of the poem shows the siren trying to seduce the man or audience. Romare Bearden’s artwork, “The Sirens’ Song”, also show the sirens being seductive and this is seen by the more pose attracting pose they are doing. In Homer’s Book 12, “The Sirens”, the setting is an island and this is shown when the Sirens say, “No man has ever rowed in his black ship past this island and not listened to us” (154-155). This setting is also shown in Margaret Atwood’s poem when she says, “I don’t enjoy it here squatting on this island”(13-14). The island setting is also in Romare Bearden’s artwork which can be seen by the land being surrounded by water. Through the three versions, the Sirens’ voices are described as beautiful. For example, in Homer’s Book 12, “The Sirens” the Sirens say, “No man has ever rowed in his black past this island and not listened to us, sweet-voiced melodies sung from our lips (154-156). The Sirens’’ voices are again described as beautiful in Margaret Atwood’s poem, when she says, “ This is the one song everyone would to learn: the song that is irresistible”(1-3). She describes it as irresistible which means

The Sirens are portrayed differently in Homer’s The Odyssey and Atwood’s “Siren Song.” Their use of diction is eloquently written with different tones and point of view. With this, they deliver two stories of the Sirens.

1) Throughout our course, there have been some incredible and powerful women characters and writers. From Granny in “Jilting of Granny Weatherall” to Delia in “Sweat”, all of their stories had powerful connotations and influences in the readers. First of there was Phoenix from “A Worn Path,” she is the protagonist of this tale and is described in a lively way by the way she moves. Welty said, “Under the red rag her hair came down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still black, and with odor like copper.” The rag in her hair, her skin, and even the wrinkles on her face are deeply expanded upon in the story and accentuate her character. She is a resilient woman and perseveres through all that comes to her. Even her name is a symbol; the

The Siren Song is a poem written by Margaret Atwood. The poem is narrated by sirens who are also the central characters of the poem. Sirens are Greek mythological creatures possessing enchanted voices luring sailors towards them, causing ships to crash on reefs near their island. The sirens were the daughters of the river god Achelous as well as the companions of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Demeter provided the sirens with wings with the intention of protecting her daughter. However, Persephone was abducted by Hades and Demeter cursed the Sirens as a result, sentenced to an eternity of singing, eternally calling for Persephone’s return.

Love is a destroying force for many. The novel “Earthbound” by Aprilynne Pike portrays many different aspects of love, fate and power. Tavia Michaels is mysteriously a sole survivor of a plane crash that kills her parents. Fortunately, Tavia quickly finds herself a best friend that she later falls in love with;Benson, which helps her deal with her mental instability in the beginning of the novel. Still completely lost and sorrowful, she begins to see visions of a mystical boy that she has never spoken to before and starts to have strange feelings of attachment towards him. She soon starts to question if what everyone told her about her past was one enormous lie and is desperately searching for answers. However, when Tavia discovers that her guardians after

Women have always been portrayed as the weaker sex compared to men. It has been demonstrated in history itself and throughout literary works. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Homer’s The Odyssey, however, portray women to be more powerful than men, even when their society thought otherwise and underestimated them because of their gender. Lady Macbeth, The Three Witches, Queen Arête and Penelope demonstrate the astute, charming, and ambitious side of women that was overlooked by men when it came to having power and making decisions. Both works show the hardships of being a woman in power. At the same time, they give their perspectives of the power women disclosed.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Medea by Euripides are known for their powerful critiques on the social expectations of women. Women during the time of Elizabethan and Greek theatre were often stereotyped and considered the weaker sex. Men were depicted as strong individuals who supported and protected women. However, both Shakespeare and Euripides broke expectations by portraying strong and iconic female characters in their respective plays. The idea of a strong female character was often unheard of during the time of Elizabethan and Greek Theatre. Through the thematic comparison of Macbeth, and Medea; this essay demonstrates how Shakespeare