Loss of the Family Cat
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The Loss of the Family Cat
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Instructor: Jessica Ruddick
November 12, 2012
After experiencing a piece of literature a reader usually forms a response to that literature because they either liked it or did not like it. To give a fair response to the literature the reader should understand the process that involves interpretation, evaluation, and analysis. In this paper I will analyze a literary work and evaluate its meaning by using an analytical approach to identify literary forms and techniques.
The literary work from this weeks reading that I chose is, “The Blue Bowl” by Jane Kenyon. This is a short poem about the authors pet that has died. The tone of this poem is sad and depressed which is evident from the very beginning of the work. Obviously the poem is about burying a cat but Kenyons word choice emphasizes the depressing tone of the poem. Bare handed, scrapped, and thud are all examples of the words the author uses to give the reader a since of dismay. Almost every line in the poem gives the reader a since of the tone, “there are sorrows keener then these,” “we brushed each other off,” “Silent the rest of the day,” “it stormed all night.” The reader has no doubt how the author feels about the death of his cat. Their pain and sorrow is felt throughout the poem and it is easy for the reader to even share in their pain.
There are many analytical approaches used in literary criticism. The Formalist Approach, the approach I will use to analyze this poem, is most widely used in literary criticism. Clugston explains that this approach “focuses on the form and development of the literary work itself. The formalist critic identifies the literary tools and techniques that the 2irter chooses and shows how they are sued to make the intent of the writer and the significance of the literary work evident.”
The first thing to consider from this approach is the setting. Kenyon describes the family as primitives scraping sand and gravel. Later he discusses them going through their day in silence and lastly a thunderstorm at night. The sand and gravel make the setting seem bare and isolate. The silence elaborates on this and the thunderstorm gives the setting a since of glum.
Second is what made the plot intriguing? Kenyon simply turns the death of a family cat into an important event the life of this family. The description of the burial and how the family went about the remainder of their day and even their emotions going into the next morning. Although it is clear the family loves their cat and is distraught by its death they do not bury it in a shoebox or anything of the sort. They simply dig a hole with