U A Fanthorpe writes powerfully about those who are most disempowered Essay Example for Free

U A Fanthorpe writes powerfully about those who are most disempowered Essay I think U A Fanthorpe does write powerfully about people who she thinks are disempowered. She does this very subtly and cleverly. She always looks at things in two perspectives one is from a dominating person and the other from a weak person who she supports. She, like Shakespeare uses various techniques to convey sympathy towards the weak people and her ideas to the reader. She uses very emotive and powerful language. I dont think that powerful writing just means strong language or words; the structure of the poem and the things she compares to could also reflect powerful writing. I think if people have confidence in themselves and who know what is right, would empower them. I think she is sympathetic towards the disempowered people. Writing about them shows this. In every poem she writes she uses italics to introduce new voices or characters. In Old Man, Old Man the old man is the disempowered person and the narrator is powerful. This is poem is based on the theme of old age, he left for himself when he saw better. In the beginning the old man was in control of everything, didnt need help but by the end he lost control and he felt helpless. and small things distress: Ive lost the hammer. It was also hinted that he was stubborn, disobedient and also had a short temper.no power to arouse your surliness. There are a lot of techniques used by Fanthorpe to reveal what she thought about the old man. Fanthorpe uses alliteration to give the sentence a bit more meaning and punch, garage and garden these harsh consonant sounds give it a bit more emphasis to it. She also makes use of imperatives let me find your hammer. Let me walk with you to drury lane. I am only a cloud; the last stanza is a good example. In You Will Be Hearing From Us Shortly the interviewer is the powerful person and the interviewee is the disempowered one. This is based on a theme of middle age. At the beginning the interviewee has a bit a confidence but by the end of the poem he has lost it completely and he/she never gets a chance to speak. In this poem the vocabulary used is quite sophisticated, words like adequate are used instead of suitable; perpetuate is used instead of continue etc. Fanthorpe ridicules the interviewer and she exaggerates the characters villainous voice. Rhetorical questions are used to quite some affect, most of the stanzas end in these questions personally have to offer?; to defend their relevance; Would you say; And you were born-?. Alliteration is also used, Domestic disasters shimmer. I think that the interviewer is very sarcastic and insulting. In Half Past Two there are three characters so its hard to decide whos the powerful and whos the disempowered. I think that the narrator is the powerful one as she is very dominating and the child is the disempowered one as he is confused about the mature and adult world he has been put into suddenly. The vocabulary used is very casual and child like. The words like timeformykisstime, onceupona, gettinguptime, and tvtime are often used by young children and this shows that the child has a daily routine, when changed from it the child gets scared and needs support. There is a lot of repetition, capitals and alliteration used; the word time itself is repeated 19 times in the whole poem. Alliteration is used to show that the child cant tell time of a clock, he couldnt click its language. Capitals are used to emphasise the words. The poems themselves have one significant thing in common; there is always an authority person and a disempowered person. In most of her poems there is always an atmosphere of war, good and evil. Fanthorpe uses narrative technique very cleverly; this is particularly effective, as this does not completely reveal the identity of the narrator. This technique can create an atmosphere of tension and suspense. This creates sympathy for the disempowered from the reader. By using this technique, I am only a cloud, somehow the readers feel much more involved with the poem because it was written in first person. The readers can imagine the situation better and sympathise with the disempowered as if it was the readers who are the disempowered. She ridicules the authoritive figure by making their characters villain like and making them look as if they are the worst people on earth. Some of Fanthorpes writings are based on real life events, which contribute to their cultural, historical and social contexted writings. The setting of Old Man, Old Man in London proves this. You Will Be Hearing From Us Shortly is an everyday stereotypical interview, which could happen anywhere. Half past two and Old man, old man have a similar structure and form but in comparison to You will be hearing from us shortly there is a stark contrast, it is written in a conversational manner. This adds to the meaning that its an interview and there are two people speaking and there is no narrator. If you look at Dear Mr Lee another one of Fanthorpes poems, it is more like a long story or essay than a poem divided into stanzas that is quite different to any of her other poems. She tries to vary her style of writing a bit from poem to poem. Most of the language she uses is informal but some of her vocabulary is sophisticated because she wanted to vary her style of writing and she also tries to keep the same theme of a dominating person and a weak person. She tries to paint the setting of her poem in the readers mind with the style of her writing. She also uses rhyming couplets in her poems. Her ability to do is excellent. I also think that these poems were written for pure enjoyment of reading and not taking it apart and look closely at each and every word, then comment on it. The poem You Will Be Hearing From Us Shortly can be looked at in two different views. The first is already mentioned above and then the second way of looking at it is the comic way. Maybe it wasnt meant to be real but just a pure fantasy where as Half-Past Two was meant to be real as all of the children would go through that stage when they are young. The ideas shown in the poems are quite different but in saying that they always have a good person and a bad person and the idea of them two always being at war. I think that U A Fanthorpe has successfully achieved her goal of creating sympathy to the disempowered people. After studying about her and her poems I have learned that powerful writing can be anything from structure of the poem to the vocabulary used, it does not necessarily mean strong language or words. I agree with some of her views but not all of them, I agree particularly with Half Past Twos views as I have been through that stage and know the feeling.