"Marie" Prompt

I enjoyed class today. You did a very nice job with Ellen Bryant Voigt's "Lesson," and I learned a lot about the poem based on your comments.

As I mentioned in class last week and today, you can either post a response to the prompt below OR post a comment to the response of one of your classmates (or a comment on a comment, etc.). You need to alternate week to week, so if you post a response this time, you need to post a comment next week, etc. We will do this until further notice.

Since we are all New Critics this week, there is only one prompt for "Marie":

What interpretation of "Marie" best establishes its organic unity? How do the elements of the text itself work together to support a universal theme, and what is that theme?

In answering this prompt, focus on the text itself and only the text. What does it reveal? You might point to the text's concrete universals, particularly its symbolism, figurative language, imagery, tone, irony, ambiguity, paradox, tension, etc. to arrive at "the single best interpretation." (As we discussed in class today, we may not be comfortable with words like "universal" or "best," but reading like a New Critic is nevertheless a worthwhile exercise that can help us become closer, more careful readers.) Whatever is in the text is fair game.

I ask that you don't go online, or to the library, to look for critical interpretations of Jones's story. Normally I encourage any and all research, but since the whole warp and woof of New Criticism is to focus exclusively on the text itself, I want to be true to that. Pretend "Marie" washed up in a bottle on the shores of your desert island.

Thanks. See you on Thursday.