Judith Sexton Literary Devices

In the second stanza, Sexton takes the reader back to the stone ages. She thumbs her nose at the exaggerated propaganda which claims that American mothers and wives are thriving. The home is reversed to “caves,” the use of “skillets,” and carvings” (9) mirror that the role of a woman has been limited to the kitchen and to the monotonous routine of everyday life. The analogy between rocky deserted caves and the witches’ homes is revealing. It decodes the early dwellers of such places. Primitive people and animals used to live in remote spots of the earth and strived to find ways to survive. In deep scrutiny of Sexton’s prolific style, one notices an overuse of metaphors. She admits that her “poems are excessive” and that she herself is “an excessive person”. Her metaphorical language is replete with pejorative meanings. She is “a poet
Caves, woods and carvings remind the reader of the Stone Ages during which people created a life out of death. They brought something promising out from scratch. They employed tools in order to exist. Finding ways to cook, igniting fire to be warm and using woods are the lifeblood for their growth. Their personal identity has been reshaped through an ongoing process to adjust to their life in these “warm caves” (8). On the other hand, living in those places foreshadows the women’s incessant frustration and extreme agony. In the 1950s, images of a successful wife and a happy mother dominated the media and social life in America. A satisfied wife is the one who consumes more and seems happier with her stable marital life. Doing the housework, feeding the children and staying home are the clues to an “American ideal of Capitalist Consumerism” in Allen Ginsberg’s own words. The figure of the “domestic goddess”, (Price 66) is supposedly the most perfect label to the housewife whose role rests solely on “seek[ing] fulfillment as wives and mothers” (Friedan 15). What is striking is