Aunt Jeniffers Tigers

A detailed Summary of Aunt Jeniffers Tigers

To some people, words are just a mess of confusion. Words are used solely to direct and lead. Words can only mean exactly what they say on paper. People think that sentences mean the same thing to every person, not matter the time or gender. But to others, words are much more than that. This is extremely apparent in Adrienne Rich's poetry.

Her first poem, to some people, appears to be random paragraphs placed together. But to me, this poem means something more. It means something different than it does to the person next to me, but to them the poem can be reaching out as well. Rich writes that, "Poems are like dreams: in them you put what you don't know you know." I think that she was saying that poems, like dreams as well, can be interpreted for each person differently. This poem is not only written in three stanza's, but also three chronological stages of life.

She begins her poem with the sentence, "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers stride across a screen." When I read this first sentence of the poem, I thought that she was removing her mind from herself. I got this idea from when she talks about re-visioning. She talks about "the act of looking back, or seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a n

She follows that sentence with, "Find even the ivory need hard to pull." I think that in this situation she is saying that she is trying to remove herself from this stereotype. She is trying to "pull" away from this prejudice, but it is incredibly hard. She is trying to change the views of not only men, but also women themselves. You can tell she feels burdensome from an excerpt of her essay, "It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful."

I think that through this one poem, you are able to see everything that Adrienne Rich feels. She expresses herself on many stages of life. She talks about viewing life from the outside, as well as the inside. She talks about life, as well as death. Though short, this poem expresses so many things. Though the content of the essay was to touch on all three of her poems, I think that going into depth on this first one helps to get the fuller understanding of Rich's feelings than skimming all three of the poems. Since this poem touches on all sorts of topics, I think that it makes understanding Rich's views a lot simpler. Of all the things she says in her poem, I think the quote that expresses her feelings the best is "As women, we have our work cut out for us."

ew critical direction," When she talks of this new direction, I think she is writing about removing herself, and looking at her life from a critical point of view. I believe that she was watching her life on a screen. She has created "Aunt Jennifer" to conceal her own identity. She sees men in her life as tigers. I think she chose tigers, because tigers are vicious. She believes that a "Man's power - to dominate, tyrannize, choose, or reject the woman." These characteristics are ones of a tiger. Tigers are dominating creatures, who tyrannize, trying to oppress other animals. A tiger can choose or reject its lover, just like a man can do.

The dictionary gives several definitions for

Some common words found in the essay are:
Aunt Jennifer's, Aunt Jennifer, Jennifer's Tigers, Adrienne Rich, Adrienne Rich's, aunt jennifer's, jennifer's tigers, proud unafraid, stages life, understanding rich's, person poem, choose reject, poems dreams, sentence poem, women viewed,

Approximate Word count = 1330
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English