In Margaret Atwood's "The handmaid's tale" and Judith Wright poems, some subject matters are similar because there are a lot of imageries based on children and men, from voices of a woman. In "the handmaid's tale" the narrator has lost her child and husband, and in some Judith Wright poems it is about a woman's love for men, and a child being born. Looking at the imagery and language used, we can compare between the approach the writers are making and the difference between these emotions, as well as the readers' responses.In Judith Wright poem "Women to Men", the persona expresses her love to her lover. In the second stanza she directly addresses her lover, "This is no child with a chil ...view middle of the document...
The persona's mother nature is very important to the child, since this imagery describes the whole world. The readers can feel the close relationship between the mother and the child, and the mother's effort and hope for the child without expecting anything in return from the child. This kind of love cannot be measured, just like the mystery of nature.In "the handmaid's tale", the author uses the simile of a ghost to reflect the distance between Offred and her daughter, this distance is not only physical, but also mental. Ghost is a supernatural image which human cannot have contact with, it symbolizes her relationship with her daughter, that she doesn't have a chance to see her again. It also brings Offred's emotions that she is hopeless and helpness, and the readers can also feel Offred's love to her daughter, because she wants her daughter to stay always the same, like a ghost, as in the past memories of her daughter. Unlike in JW's poem, this child has a much further relationship with Offred, even if Offred loves her, due to the situation Offred is having now as a handmaid.Coming back to Judith Wright's "Woman to man", she uses an imagery of tree to describe the growth of a child. "This is the blood's wild tree that grows the intricate and folded rose". The tree is a metaphor of the child and the rose is the grown one. This represents the child's dependence on his mother when he is growing up. This is an impression of a child feeding on his own mother's blood, this is a close link between the child and his mother, and the natural process of a child's growth like a tree, becoming "wild" as...
