The Planners vs the City Planner

The city planners * Magaret Atwood - Canadian poet * Purpose: question the planners about the fake perfection * Criticism of the system * Emotion tone: emotionless, calm (beginning), materialistic, depressing, fear, sorrow, monotonous, disillusion, sarcastic, mocking, anger * Theme: man vs nature * images about human hand in nature. – even nature is controlled by humans * society is blinded by this perfect order. * Nature will assert its dominance over man again * Lots of irony * Free verse * A lot of enjambments * Colons are used to emphasize * Man’s manipulation of nature * Political dominance * Lost of culture * Discuss the human take-over of nature * Criticism of abuse of power – ambiguity of the identity of the city planners * The image is more * emotion: humourous * talks about serioud issues without creepy feeling * lack of identity * beganning – precision * second part – the illusion, avoidance(of reality) etc is highlighted * the size of stanza reduce as we go along - deterioration * language: simple diction * colon – lists out the sanities * end no punctuation – shows the frantic pace of the planners * lots of metaphor * personification – nature is dominated (discourage grass) * Imagery – thought provoking, inventive * Hose – violent * Snow storm - confusion
The planner * Boey Kim Cheng: * From Singapore- migrated to Australia * Purpose: question the government/politician about the fake perfection * Criticism * Emotion: fear, anger, neutral, tired, materialistic, tired, surrender, monotenous * Theme: man vs nature * images about human hand in nature. – even nature is controlled by humans * society is blinded by this perfect order. * Nature cant do anything, the planners are unstoppable * No rhyme scheme * Man’s manipulation of nature * Political dominance * Lost of culture * Discuss the human take-over of nature * Free verse * Criticism of abuse of power – ambiguity of the identity of the planners * emotion: serious * Make you feel uneasy * Man’s dominance over nature * Conformity * Themes
Themes
Science and technology VS. Culture, art and history * Wealth, power and capitalism * Artificial perfection - soulessness * Disillusionment * Emotion vs intellect * Beganning – precision * Alouse of nature come later * Second part – relentlessness is highlighted * Language: simple diction * Personification – nature is dominated (‘skies surrender’) * Visual imagery – extended dental metaphor