Analysis of Exiles by Carolyn Kay Steedman
First impressions of Steedman's "Exiles" left me feeling as if the woman had a lot of sour grapes to deal with. The overall flavor of the piece leans toward the negative, the cynical and sometimes even the sarcastic. She seems particularly critical of her parents, who probably did their best with what they had, but nowhere do we see much in the way of compassionate empathy on her part. The title she chose for the piece, Exiles, emphasizes the alienation that she felt from her parents, as well as the social/economic alienation which she felt her parents had endured. If I had to place a particular definition on this interpretation, it would be that Steedman suffers from a lack of objectivity.One such example of this cynicism appears in the last paragraph of page 649, wherein Steedman goes out of her way to describe in detail how her mother lied to her about her past: As a teenage worker my mother had broken with a recently established tradition and on leaving school in 1927 didn't go into the sheds. She lied to me though when, at about the age of eight, I asked her what she'd done, and she said she'd worked in an office, done clerical work.
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Steedman's Exiles, Gimmie Gimmie, steedman goes, , top page, alienation parents, little bit, page 650,
Approximate Word count = 779
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
