Mending Wall And Flower Feet

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An Analysis of the Use of Literary Devices to Further the Theme of Tradition in Flower Feet and Mending Wall The poems Flower Feet by Ruth Fainlight and Mending Wall by Robert Frost both make use of diction, figurative language, imagery, tone and form to explore the theme of tradition. All these literary devices serve to help further immerse the reader so as to have them see things in the way the author intended. In addition, the poems teach non-contrary but different lessons on the subject. The poem “Flower Feet” is about the old and discontinued Chinese tradition of painfully and harmfully stuffing women’s feet into disturbingly small shoes, often started at a young age. To illustrate this, as well as the thoughts of people who had gone through it, she uses a lot of imagery, as well as some similes and diction. One example of these many uses of imagery is “If the feet had been cut off and the raw stumps/thrust inside the openings, surely/it could not hurt more than broken toes, twisted/back and bandaged tight.” Ruth also uses many similes, such as “when she stood on points/of pain that gnawed like fire”, which is also another example of imagery. The many uses of similes and specifically imagery really help to make the reader feel the pain of the girl in the poem which makes the whole poem much more powerful and successful at getting the reader to see things the way Ruth wants them too. There is also some diction, such as in the lines “from bands of coral, jade, and apricot silk/embroidered with twined sprays of flowers.” At the end, the girl in the second half of the poem is an old woman, and after talking about her experience as a child “Her friends nodded, glad the times had changed./Otherwise, they would have crippled their daughters.” This really seals that the poem is about tradition, and makes a poignant statement about it; that even these women who are
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