Dealing With Persecution

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Dealing With Persecution Louise Erdrich’s poem “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” and Anne Sexton’s “Her Kind” both demonstrate the theme of persecution by using imagery and a standard format to spark that emotion in the reader. Sexton is a confessional poet ;therefore, it is commonly accepted that the speaker is her own voice. In contrast, Erdrich utilizes a speaker that may or may not be her own voice. Even though both look at the theme of persecution, they each have a clearly different perspective. Both poems are in the same format and with the same theme of persecution; however, while Erdrich’s poem presents a conforming to the persecution, Sexton shows a woman not bending to the persecution. Erdrich’s poem is presented in a standard format expressing the theme of persecution. The poem consists of three stanzas each containing eight lines. The meter is also relatively regular until the last stanza. The speaker talks of being persecuted. While “Home’s the place we head for in our sleep”(1.1) the speaker says, “We know the sheriff’s waiting at midrun/to take us back” (2.12-13). Furthermore, the speaker uses the phrase “regulation clothes” (2 .11). This phrase implies a lack of choice and freedom. Since the children are forced to attend this boarding school, they are not there by choice. In United States’ history Native American children have been taken from their families and forced to attend schools. The purpose has been to try and civilize the savages. The poem reflects the persecution that the Native American children who have attended these schools have faced. Similarly, Sexton’s “Her Kind” uses a standard format to demonstrate persecution. “Her Kind” has three stanzas each containing seven lines. She uses the phrases such as, “twelve-fingered” (1.5), “disaligned” (2.12), and “misunderstood” (2.13) to describe what kind of woman she feels like. In
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