Throughout Kettle Bottom, family is valued. Through the different voices and the content of the pieces, family and the importance of family are commented on through the relationships of the spouses, parent and child, siblings, and friendships.
Think about what else is valued in this collection. Using three poems from the beginning, middle, and end of the collection, what is something else that is valued? Explain how you arrived at your conclusion using the poems as your evidence.
Your response should be about one to two paragraphs with textual evidence to support your thinking.
This collection of poems puts emphasis on the value of truth. Some characters want to know the truth and other characters want others to see the truth. “A Book Report, by Pearlie Webb” focuses on a girl who wants to understand the life she is living. She writes, “When you give me this book, Miss Terry, and told me it means Changes and these stories helps explain why things is the way they are, I thought, Well, good. Finally” (Fisher 25). Most children are hidden from the severity of the world as much as they can be. However, Pearlie shows that the mines are so harsh she can’t be hidden from them. She turns to her teacher and her books because she knows it all and she wants to know the truth of how things became this way. A similar quest for the truth is seen in “Journal of Catherine Terry”, a poem about the day the mines collapsed and the sirens blew. Every person heard the sirens and immediately turned to the mines, “their gaze was the only spell they had to conjure faces out of that dark” (Fisher 42). Every single person had to know the truth- will they see their family members again? They could not tear their gaze away from the mines because this is their only way to see the truth. They can’t stop themselves from wanting to know the truth.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a value in making everyone understand the truth. Once the strike begins, many reporters visit the scene. In “Samson” the boss makes his worker lie and explain that the mines are fairly safe. As he starts to explain that some men die doing his work, his bosses move to leave. Samson reacts, “I stood in their way. With my right hand/ I pressed one pillar, the other with my left/ I pressed harder, and I told them my name” (Fisher 7). Samson’s boss never called him by his name and never acknowledged that he was putting his workers in danger. By blocking him in and telling him his name, Samson is making him face the truth- there is a good chance he can die and the boss should call Samson by his name.
The collection of the Kettle Bottom poems values not only family, but also empathy. Empathy can be seen throughout these poems from the multiple voices the author uses to write them. By using multiple voices to share the experiences of multiple people, this allows the reader to feel empathy for them. Using a male/female perspective helps readers understand the hard situation for men and women in different ways which allows us to feel empathy for the participants we read about.
ReplyDeleteNot only allowing the reader to feel empathy, but also the characters in the poems seem to have a lot of empathy for one another. This can be most thouroughly seen form the perspective of them women. They have a lot of care and empathy for the males throughout the collection of poems. For example, in the poem "Explosion at Winco No. 9" it states, "It is true that it is the men that goes in, but it is us that carries the mine inside. It is us that listens to what all they are scared of and takes the weight of it from them, like handing off a sack of meal." (Fischer, 1). The woman's perspective is showing that their role was required for them to feel empathy for their loved males in the mines. This shows that both the characters of the story and the readers are able to find a value of empathy by the end of the collection.
The poems in KettleBottom focus on the relationships of family, that emotional connection provided there. Through that aspiration, the connections established here is through the union of faith that has brought these human beings together. This doesn’t have to necessarily be religion; it's the factor of having perseverance through traumatic death experiences, being a widow at the time of uncertainty, or having the ethics to fit in the social class system. The faith that is brought down from heaven to Earth that shows a reason to be living, especially if the men are gone at work during the coal mines. However, that makes the women feel confident as they are doing the housework at home based on the causality of the time period they were in. Faith can be seen as a word, or be distinguished in the process of believing in one self, as they self sacrifice themselves in returning back to the normality in the neighborhood. There is strength to be endured during the hardest of times, and in the process of being alone, even though there will always be a shoulder to lean on. Identity is transformed, that consumes the person who they are, not only from the inside but also from the outside.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of having faith is the same as not giving up, as so when there are battles, and they’re faced alone. But, a person who loves themselves,along with the alliance of a well kept family, will have hopes. Hope is realizing the bad in the world, yet wanting something good to over strive from at the end; in the eye of the public, that is the same as having faith. The passages in Kettlebottom flows with the connection for faith in humanity, as in “Beautiful, the Owner Says,” “But in the dark you see only what glows... the founding of a hearth for a new world” (Fisher 21). The point of view in Beautiful the Owner Says, there was a dream for glory, to settle independence among the gender roles played here. That one can only see the unknown when they encounter it. In order to catch the drift though, they have to be diligent enough to be alone, and have a different inception in the community compared to what everyone else sees when living in a low beneficiary environment. This part of recognizing, acknowledges the advantage from being innocent, to the abrupt fact that people have to defend themselves with slight innocence still lagging inside. Innocence is what drowns people out from the hasty side effects they are living through each day, which is seen in Journal of Catherine Terry, “Don’t look, I thought, for I had never seen a man die and wasn’t Eurydice lost on account of just such looking down toward the underworld” (Fisher 41). People can foresee something, and wish they haven’t, and they can grieve about it properly and move on, instead of letting the guilt ruin them. Faith works in miraculous ways, but one can’t assume it to happen, if they don’t act for it. The world isn’t an easy place, but it can be worked with under the right mind set, instead of focusing on the bad, whether that be from a natural disaster, death of a loved one, or from the fallen of an economy; but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. This is seen in Another Book Report, by Pearlie Webb, that a person can only go through so much, yet still act like they’ve come out of the world untouched. That is what faith is, when walls can tumble down, but still not letting the type of inferior personality on the inside, “A woman can go to Hell and come back again” (Fisher 64). Those who witness an unfair enactment, they handle more emotionally, and know how to pick themselves back up again. There are moments to sit around and mourn over the lost, but there is also a moment to realize when enough is just enough. People need to have the understanding of the type of person they want to be, but then at the end of the day there is a confidence they have to only rely on who they are or were.
Kettlebottom's collection of poems holds the value of self-interest in oneself. These ideas unveil throughout the verses: "Dear Diary," "Raven Light," and "The Mother Has Her Say." The voice within "Dear Diary" tells the story of a father who clings onto the 1900s mentality of being the 'man of the household.' Self-interest flows out the veins of the speaker in this poem, blankets over the father, and slowly fills his life with a selfish desire. In it, it speaks, "for he is hateful of them / mission boxes, but Mama caught his eye / and shook her head No at him" (25-27.) He can not fulfill the needs of his family, and he sees that this mission box can, resulting in him wanting his family to stay away from those boxes.
ReplyDeleteAnother form of self-interest lies in the money factor. It starts with work, but these workers work till gruesome deaths. in "The Mother Has Her Say," expresses, "Ain't I already living in a land / where a boy can't never grow old?" (26-27.) This nihilistic attitude stems from work. Unfortunately, more coal equals more money, and the coal mine owners would never work in the coal mine. All that is left is to sacrifice the men willing to work for their self-interest. Also, with the whole negative mindset of working in the mines, true intentions jump out in dire situations.
The storyteller in "Raven Light" conveys, "Dust begin to blow / back where I was, I heard hollering. / I heard praying. I walked back / the other way, into the dark" (46.) They later continue, "I don't know / why I done it. / What I want is to keep seeing Gertie's face / up in the world [...] So I guess I'll die. I'm dying right now / and I ain't laughing neither" (52.) One could argue that Nathan regrets his decision and wants to see his wife, so that would be his self-interest. Although, if his wife were his priority, when the mine fell, he would have walked the other way. Instead, his subconscious chose death, and that highlights self-interest. His life was so miserable he was ready to drop everything in the moment of a disaster.
-Deza
DeleteThe poems within the collection of Kettle Bottom provide not only an emphasis on the value of family, but also of social norms. In the poem, "Dear Diary", a girl by the name Emily Lawson reveals her social norm as one who is seen as beautiful. This is revealed when the neighbors gathered around her and state, "Ain't she pretty....Look at them blue eyes" (12) until she felt like she was of higher class. Not only this, but coming from a wealthier family already made her of higher social class. A social norm that may not be focused on wealth but targets women would be when women are not able to go to heaven no matter what they do as seen in the poem, "Another Book Report, by Pearlie Webb". But in the poem, the mother states at the very end, "There's one advantage women have over men. A woman can go to Hell and come back again." (65) which shows how even though women end up in "Hell", they always have the upper hand over the men because they can come back again.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the miners, the social standards are different because of the separate lifestyle they live. An example of this would be in the poem, "Raven Light", where the narrator, Nathan, tells the story of when his dad was buried. When he and his mother were unable to see the body before it was buried, the men said to them and specifically her, "It's best, they told her, and she let it go." (53) The norm standard of not being able to see the body of their loved ones that have worked in the mines wasn't seen as unusual due to the mother not fighting to see him and for just accepting it as it was.
-Bri Angle
The poems of Kettle Bottom thoroughly emphasizes moral aspects of life like family and empathy but another very important concept that it shines light on, through multiple poems, is race. During this time a lot of immigrants would come over to America in pursuits of the American Dream. The immigrants were willing to take whatever jobs they could including the mining jobs to make ends meet.The first poem in which this is introduce is the second poem of the collection "L'Inglese". This poem is from an Italian immigrant within the mining community. He talks throughout the poem about how English is a rocky rough language and why the place is called kettle bottom. when he learns that it basically means constant looming death from an American worker. The poem ends with that hopeless feeling ""Lasciate ogni speranxa voi ch'entrate qui"(8). "Leave all hope you who enter here". The poem "At the colored Bathroom" addressed segregation. Crimes are pegged on immigrnant people like the dago boy who showed up dead even though he was trying to save the stupid womans baby.
ReplyDeleteRace was a prominent thing during the time period of the mine wars. American people were angry at immigrants and would treat them as second class citizens because they felt as though they were taking jobs and luxuries away from the american people when truly there was more than enough for everyone and the immigrants were willing to take the down and dirty jobs that Americans felt to entitled to take unless they absolutely have to. this evident in various poems throughout the Kettle Bottom collection whether it was through exploration of the stigma or the slurs used or the even just the language differences.
--Nora Haycook--
Everyone has something they value. This shows through the poetry collection Kettle Bottom. In these passages one such value is their connection to religion. There are several biblical references or statements within the text showing all of the narrator's connection to faith. In the poem "A Book Report, bu Pearie Webb" the narrator is writing a book report and mentions her mother. During this time she says "I have asked mama the why of many things and she gave me the bible and told me if I look careful and with all my heart I will find all the answers there," (10-13). Her mother keeps faith in her religion. It is something that throughout history has given people comfort and hope. By giving the bible to her daughter she is attempting to give the same comfort to her daughter when she cannot answer some of the more difficult questions, even if the daughter doesn't feel the same way throughout the poem. Another of the poems that show a direct verbal message of direct faith in religion is "Raven Light". In the beginning of the text the narrator of that poem is having a nightmare and states, "Oh, Christ. Christ, don't let me be in Hell. Oh, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus," (10-12). This shows her faith in religion will save her. She trusts in her faith to keep her safe from harm and make everything alright, as many have done before.
ReplyDeleteThere are many stories within the bible and these are often referenced throughout Kettle Bottom, reaffirming how much they value religion. Within the poem "Raven Light" there are several stories referenced as she thinks. One such reference occurs when she says, "...like Noah waiting for the storm to pass. He must have pondered long and hard on how to start over in a whole new world, not even knowing who's be there, or if there'd be trees," (138-142). These references are a means of finding comfort withing the stories where things will be alright as long as they believe and have faith in God. Anther biblical reference comes in the poem "Samson". Beyond just the title there are heavy references to the biblical story of Samson when the narrator collapses the mines on his superiors. In this passage it says, "With my right hand I press on one pillar,the other with my left," (21-22). This is like in the biblical story of Samson where he is chained to the pillars of a temple and prays to God to return his strength. When his wish is blessed by god he pulls out the pillars, bringing the structure down on the enemies around him. These stories mirror each other, showing the faith they have in the bible and following it's ways. It is common for people to value faith, it is a way of getting through hard times and believing things will be alright. In Kettle Bottom, they need a lot of faith in their hard and dangerous situations. Faith is something they value highly.