A Compare and Contrast of “the Stripper” and “Patterns”: Women’s Roles as Viewed by Society

Amy Lowell’s “Patterns”, and Anita Endrezze-Danielson’s, “The Stripper”, are poems focused on the views and roles of women in society. Despite the drastic differences between the poems’ settings and the specific situations each woman is in. In “Patterns” a high class woman’s fiancé passed away. That marriage being her only way out of the life she is trapped in is deeply upset because she has no other way out, unless her family arranges for another marriage. In “The Stripper” the woman puts on repeated shows every night for men in the bar, and is unhappy with the life she is living as well. The two poems share many similarities. Both women find themselves being classified in stereotypical roles. They each want to break free of the lifestyle they are in and they want to be their own person, rather than the person that society expects them to be. These similarities help prove that society has set roles for women and they rarely steer away from these beliefs. This makes enjoying life hard on the women, leaving them caught between being who they want to be and being who they are expected to be. There are simple differences between “Patterns” and “The Stripper” which appear mainly in the way the settings are described. In “Patterns”, the main focus is on describing the scenery, allowing the reader to be fully aware of all of the surroundings. The in-depth description of the paths and flowers gives the impression that the woman should be happy with her life and everything she is given. The flowers around her are described as “blowing” or “flutter[ing]” and the water in the fountain is “plashing” and “the dripping never stops” (Lowell 142). This adds movement to the description of the scenery. Both the flowers and the water give off the illusion of freedom and the ability to change through their movement, unlike the woman in the poem. She is stuck “for the man who should loose [her] is dead” (Lowell 144) and has no way of escaping this life anymore. In “The Stripper” the

Cited: Lowell, Amy. “Patterns.” The Wascana Poetry Anthology. Richard G. Harvey, ed. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1996. pp. 142-144. Print. Endrezze-Danielson, Anita. “The Stripper.” The Wascana Poetry Anthology. Richard G. Harvey, ed. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1996. 236. Print.