Reader Response Theory: Poem Analysis

The different perspectives with the theoretical framework of the reader response theory are mainly headed by the criticism of the important terms and approaches that are brought about from studies of the different interpretations. The reader response theory, a one-hundred-year-old criticism is governed by having a piece of literary work that is created for an audience. The interpretation is focused on the readers’ and their relationship to the text. Direct personal connections when reading leads to the reader bringing forth their own personal twist to what the text can mean; there is no set or determined right or wrong generated meaning. The reader’s response places the reader into the text where meaning is only created and shaped because of

A woman left without having a say in terms of what gets to happen to her, which left me quite unsettled. Unsettled and helpless, just as the onlookers that watched her endure something that they certainly would not wish upon themselves. “Coating her naked body in molasses,” was that a necessary form of punishment? There was absolutely nothing pleasurable subsequent to reading the text. I felt disgusted while grasping the idea that she was an African slave that was being punished for something so seemingly wrong that solidified the truth of how slaves weren’t treated like humans. In addition to the helpless feeling as I read, I reflected on the first lines of the poem, “Face up .... body to the ground...” which reminded me of being bullied for being different and in this case of the ‘rebel woman’, she was being punished for choosing a different outcome for her and her newborn: the crime of saving her newborn child from the same fate she was enduring – the life of a slave. My belief still stands that slavery was and never will be justified and this poem is a prime example of

The very mother of a newborn that knew she nor her newborn did not have choices in this life on earth. And it is here, that ‘the rebel woman’, not only a slave but an oppressed woman with her rebellious act, tried to make sense of it all. I sensed the assertion of power by the slave master calling out the other rebel woman to see what would happen when and if they ever crossed him. Maybe, the child she killed was his; maybe, this rebel woman was probably raped and was about to add to his collection and he would be receiving another slave in years to come without having to pay for one but she took that prospect away from him and this enraged him. This to me was the most despicable part to come to terms with. Who was the human? My focus shifted to think of all women who suffer through the same oppression by their boyfriends, husbands, attackers/abusers; women that are raped and forced to deal with the consequences of others and their ‘rebellious’ actions. The act of her killing the new born thinking it was the best thing to do, possibly thinking ahead of what would happen if they found out, and knowing death would be the outcome; I felt her pain that was never given a chance to be