How All Are Discriminated
The struggles of men and women against common perception of themselves
created by society has been a subject that has been constantly thought of. The
omnipotence of this issue is held testament by the sheer endurance of it within our
minds. The poems To Be A Woman by Daisy Zamora and Who’d Want to Be a Man? by
Gregory Orr both portray the mental anguish these oppressions have on humans. As the
poems on their fundamental level describe similar topics, there may be some noticeable
similarities in their content, but the subtle difference of the speakers and victims create
inherent differences in the poems’ structure and rhetoric.
The most prominent similarity between the two works is the base emotion which the speaker has to deal with due to the expectations placed by society. The first two stanzas of To Be A Woman describes the women’s role as subservient sacrifices as their “thoughts do not belong to you (women).” In order to emphasize on how women have been forced into subservient roles, the poem uses repetition of words such as “others” and “not yours”. The stanzas are divided evenly, the first line emphasizing how such a constraining role comes from “being born a woman”. This even division of the first two stanzas reflects upon the nature of the oppression that bears on the speaker; her emotional angst is immense and overwhelming, but such emotions are caged by neatly organized formatting. The themes of oppression and suffering are also prevalent throughout the poem Who’d Want to Be a Man which describes the oppressions men bring upon themselves. To the speaker, supposedly the archetypical male, “his heart” is a “black sack” where a small animal is trapped within. The poem also expresses how the man’s “grief”, “rage”, “desires” and “mind” are systematically repressed. This as a whole brings contrast to society’s usual portrayal of men as lions, the head of the household. As the dominant gender, people tend to view men as strong with the aggression and authority to do whatever they please. This concept is challenged by To Be A Man, which undermines the underlying truth that such unreasonable expectations serve to do nothing but force the man to pretend he is steel, while in reality he is human, whose veins runs volatile and deep-rooted emotions. Like To Be a Woman, Who’d Want to Be a Man shares the usage of partially identical wordings in the first lines of each stanza by putting “With his”, thus strengthening the burdens the speaker faces. These structural and contextual similarities demonstrate how perhaps both women and men are restrained by society in uncannily similar ways.
As much as the similarities between the two poems serve to connect upon a common theme, the rhetoric differences between the two poems cannot be ignored. To Be a Woman has a major shift of tone at the beginning of the third stanza, changing from a sense of hopelessness to that of rebellious spirit. The diction used within the passage emphasizes on this aspect by using words such as “Rebel”, “fight”, “Scream”, “Destroying”, “liberated”, and “conquer”. Although the poem suggests that the social pressures given to women will never change, the speaker describes how genuine rejection of such ideals will allow women to have at least themselves, their “voice”, and their “verb.” This hopeful tone is nonexistent in Who’d Want to Be a Man as the poem sees no lighter shift in tone, instead further reveling on the desperate and lonely nature of men’s struggles against societal expectations. As the poem progresses through the concept of restraint, grief, rage, and the desperateness of a man’s life like “a tree on a cliff”, the poem ends with the speaker’s desperate pleas as his “longing that’s a dry well... and where is the rain?” Orr, instead of supporting men to fight against their repressions, chooses to indulge further into the speaker’s pains. This can only be seen as inevitable as the struggles of men described by Orr are by their nature different from those of a woman. The repressions faced by women come from the outside, leaving the women free to struggle against societal expectations and be themselves. On the other hand, the repressions faced by men find their origins in men themselves, thus they cannot break down the black sack that eternally keeps their feelings within their pained hearts.
The most prominent similarity between the two works is the base emotion which the speaker has to deal with due to the expectations placed by society. The first two stanzas of To Be A Woman describes the women’s role as subservient sacrifices as their “thoughts do not belong to you (women).” In order to emphasize on how women have been forced into subservient roles, the poem uses repetition of words such as “others” and “not yours”. The stanzas are divided evenly, the first line emphasizing how such a constraining role comes from “being born a woman”. This even division of the first two stanzas reflects upon the nature of the oppression that bears on the speaker; her emotional angst is immense and overwhelming, but such emotions are caged by neatly organized formatting. The themes of oppression and suffering are also prevalent throughout the poem Who’d Want to Be a Man which describes the oppressions men bring upon themselves. To the speaker, supposedly the archetypical male, “his heart” is a “black sack” where a small animal is trapped within. The poem also expresses how the man’s “grief”, “rage”, “desires” and “mind” are systematically repressed. This as a whole brings contrast to society’s usual portrayal of men as lions, the head of the household. As the dominant gender, people tend to view men as strong with the aggression and authority to do whatever they please. This concept is challenged by To Be A Man, which undermines the underlying truth that such unreasonable expectations serve to do nothing but force the man to pretend he is steel, while in reality he is human, whose veins runs volatile and deep-rooted emotions. Like To Be a Woman, Who’d Want to Be a Man shares the usage of partially identical wordings in the first lines of each stanza by putting “With his”, thus strengthening the burdens the speaker faces. These structural and contextual similarities demonstrate how perhaps both women and men are restrained by society in uncannily similar ways.
As much as the similarities between the two poems serve to connect upon a common theme, the rhetoric differences between the two poems cannot be ignored. To Be a Woman has a major shift of tone at the beginning of the third stanza, changing from a sense of hopelessness to that of rebellious spirit. The diction used within the passage emphasizes on this aspect by using words such as “Rebel”, “fight”, “Scream”, “Destroying”, “liberated”, and “conquer”. Although the poem suggests that the social pressures given to women will never change, the speaker describes how genuine rejection of such ideals will allow women to have at least themselves, their “voice”, and their “verb.” This hopeful tone is nonexistent in Who’d Want to Be a Man as the poem sees no lighter shift in tone, instead further reveling on the desperate and lonely nature of men’s struggles against societal expectations. As the poem progresses through the concept of restraint, grief, rage, and the desperateness of a man’s life like “a tree on a cliff”, the poem ends with the speaker’s desperate pleas as his “longing that’s a dry well... and where is the rain?” Orr, instead of supporting men to fight against their repressions, chooses to indulge further into the speaker’s pains. This can only be seen as inevitable as the struggles of men described by Orr are by their nature different from those of a woman. The repressions faced by women come from the outside, leaving the women free to struggle against societal expectations and be themselves. On the other hand, the repressions faced by men find their origins in men themselves, thus they cannot break down the black sack that eternally keeps their feelings within their pained hearts.
The two poems discussed within this essay may differ from each other due to the
different speakers, audience, and nature of the conflict present within the poem.
However, these differences must not obscure the fact that the poems fundamentally
portray the same subject: human sufferings due to unacceptable standards.
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