Olga Broumas Cinderella
Savannah Hotaling
#0268904
LIB.112.X Expository Writing II
Mikal Gaines
29 April 2015
Is Cinderella a real happy ever after? In May of 1949, poet Olga Broumas was born in Ermoupoli, Greece and went on to becoming an honors and award winning poet and professor. After immigrating to the United States in 1967, Broumas received a Fullbright fellowship to study and earn her Bachelors from the University of Pennsylvania in architecture. Broumas later went on to earn her Master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Oregon. Broumas writing career took off in 1977, when her first book appeared in the United States, Beginning with O. In Beginning with O, Broumas begins to explore her present themes of lesbianism as well as feminism throughout …show more content…
As the Poem, “Cinderella” is opposite from the fairytale version due to the use of irony, but also the use of imagery. The narrator in the poem is already living with the “prince” and being told she is being “allowed in to the royal chambers” (Broumas), where in reality the narrator is a “woman alone” (Broumas), forced to live separate from her mother and sisters. The narrator’s feeling of isolation and entrapment is highlighted through the figurative language used in her monologue. When the narrator revels in the beginning of the poem that she is in a house of men, she is “alone”. The word “alone” is repeated numerous times implying she is practically invisible and her presence in the household is disregarded. The narrator feels that her married life leaves her lonely, as well as gives the audience a hint that the narrator savors her past life with her sisters and her mother, who seem to be the driving force in the narrator’s ambition to be free from her “prince”. The section from lines 16-21, is the narrator describing how woman are seen as the domestic spouse in the relationship, continuing to do the household chores. This section is the narrator describing how her marriage is not a happy life for her and how that the narrator will die young without enjoying her life with her own freedom. The poems use of symbolism in the role of characters instill Broumas used of feminism throughout the poetic work. The narrator, takes on the modern role of Cinderella, symbolizing every woman, while her “sisters” symbolize the female community, also the “princes” symbolize all men who dominate a woman’s domestic, social, and professional environment. On a deeper level, the poem criticizes the under-representation of women both as a community but also as individuals; “As the
#0268904
LIB.112.X Expository Writing II
Mikal Gaines
29 April 2015
Is Cinderella a real happy ever after? In May of 1949, poet Olga Broumas was born in Ermoupoli, Greece and went on to becoming an honors and award winning poet and professor. After immigrating to the United States in 1967, Broumas received a Fullbright fellowship to study and earn her Bachelors from the University of Pennsylvania in architecture. Broumas later went on to earn her Master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Oregon. Broumas writing career took off in 1977, when her first book appeared in the United States, Beginning with O. In Beginning with O, Broumas begins to explore her present themes of lesbianism as well as feminism throughout …show more content…
As the Poem, “Cinderella” is opposite from the fairytale version due to the use of irony, but also the use of imagery. The narrator in the poem is already living with the “prince” and being told she is being “allowed in to the royal chambers” (Broumas), where in reality the narrator is a “woman alone” (Broumas), forced to live separate from her mother and sisters. The narrator’s feeling of isolation and entrapment is highlighted through the figurative language used in her monologue. When the narrator revels in the beginning of the poem that she is in a house of men, she is “alone”. The word “alone” is repeated numerous times implying she is practically invisible and her presence in the household is disregarded. The narrator feels that her married life leaves her lonely, as well as gives the audience a hint that the narrator savors her past life with her sisters and her mother, who seem to be the driving force in the narrator’s ambition to be free from her “prince”. The section from lines 16-21, is the narrator describing how woman are seen as the domestic spouse in the relationship, continuing to do the household chores. This section is the narrator describing how her marriage is not a happy life for her and how that the narrator will die young without enjoying her life with her own freedom. The poems use of symbolism in the role of characters instill Broumas used of feminism throughout the poetic work. The narrator, takes on the modern role of Cinderella, symbolizing every woman, while her “sisters” symbolize the female community, also the “princes” symbolize all men who dominate a woman’s domestic, social, and professional environment. On a deeper level, the poem criticizes the under-representation of women both as a community but also as individuals; “As the