Help with multiple assgn due in 36 hours

Edna St. Vincent Millay Discussion

As always, bonus points may be given for commenting thoughtfully on the posts of your classmates.

AUSTIN’S POSTS:

1. In “Spring,” Edna St. Vincent Millay examines the triviality of spring. Obviously dealing with a crisis of life’s meaninglessness, Millay seems resentful of spring’s surface-level mask of beauty. Millay realizes the pain life brings with it, and she says “beauty is not enough” (Millay). Deeply affected by the mundanity of life and the inevitability of death, Millay is no longer comforted by the temporary pleasantries spring brings with it. Millay writes “It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, / April / Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers” (Millay). Millay’s personification of the season and of her crippling depression allow the reader a glimpse into the mind of a troubled woman who is unimpressed by life and its possibilities.

2. In “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why,” Edna St. Millay reflects on the lovers that have come and gone in her life. Millay implies that she has had many lovers throughout her life, and she is unable to remember a majority of them. She is now lonely, and writes “I only know that summer sang in me / A little while, that in me sings no more” (Millay). Having multiple partners and no spouse is historically frowned upon. Janie from Zora Neale Hurston’s  Their Eyes Were Watching God was harassed by other women just for moving on from her dead husband. When she returns to town after Tea Cake’s death, she is ridiculed for being in a relationship with a younger man. Millay seems unaffected by the opinion of others. Millay implies that she misses her short, sweet, physical relationships with men.

Dorothy Parker Discussion

As always, bonus points may be given to students who comment thoughtfully on the posts of their classmates.

AUSTIN’S POST:

2. In “A Certain Lady,” Dorothy Parker subverts male expectations of women and shows depth beneath the demure veil of compliance men see on the surface. Parker empowers women to manipulate men as they themselves have been manipulated historically. She details a woman’s ability to keep her emotions under control and to proceed through a relationship with calculated efficiency. Parker encourages women to exert their freedom when their man is away.  She writes “And what goes on, my love, while you’re away, / You’ll never know” (Parker). In “Men,” Parker empowers women to avoid men altogether. She asserts that men attempt to shape women into their ideal companion. She writes “And once they have you, safe and sound, / They want to change you all around” (Parker). Parker implies that women are fully-realized, well-rounded beings without men, and they should make every effort to maintain their independence.