Our focus has no shifted from "Lord of the Flies" to poetry. In today's lesson, we studied the peom "Nettles" by Vernon Scannell and focused on the relationship between father and son. Some of the key points we discussed were:- The naivety of the father in believing he can protect the son from the evils of the world
- The father's futile anger as manifested by his destruction of the nettle bed
- The son's loss of innocence (as represented by the "watery grin" which could imply his smile is no longer innocent and is forever blurred and tarnished by the pain he has now experienced
- The strength of the protective bond between father and son
- The son's reliance on his father for protection
Your homework, due on Friday, is to answer the following question.
I'm expecting 200-400 words or around one to two sides in your exercise book. Make sure you use quotations.
In the poem, Scannell uses the poem "Nettles" to show the anguish of parenthood by portraying the cutting of the nettles as an ongoing battle to keep his child safe from whatever may cause him pain.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Scannell shows this by showing that things in this world are not that obvious at first to the human eye in terms of what underlying threats they may pose. As for example in the poem it says “My son aged three fell in the nettle bed” this is an example of an underlying threat as the two words “nettle” and “bed” create a juxtaposition in the sense that a bed implies: warmth, safety , comfort however “nettle” creates a sense of: pain , discomfort , affliction . As a result Scannell shows the anguish of parenthood by showing the reader that nothing is ever black and white so it causes pain as parents are not able to know what is good and what is bad due to dubious forms in which they come in. Furthermore Scannell shows the anguish of parenthood as he shows that parents are alone in their fight to keep their children safe as Scannell has shown mother nature to be more of an enemy than the mother title it holds as the nettles are labelled as “green spears” which is quite deceiving as green is meant to amplify nature however it has been paired with “spear”- a weapon which is associated with destruction and in this case pain.
In addition Scannell uses the poem “Nettles” to show the anguish of parenthood by almost comparing it to an ongoing battle. This is evident as at the end of the poem it says “My son would often feel sharp wounds again” , which indicates ultimately that even though parents in general try their hardest in protecting their children they are bound to feel pain again as it is the inevitable. The pain caused by this is the thought that some days they will be powerless to agony faced by their children as at the end of the poem the persona created by Scannell communicates a sign of realization and the ultimate anguish that they are not always going to be that hero that they want to be. Also every time they don’t shield them from the world their child loses a bit of that innocence they once possessed, this is shown by the son offering a “watery grin” which implies an almost half distorted grin.
How does Scannell use ‘Nettles’ to show the anguish of parenthood?
ReplyDeleteScannell’s interpretation of parenthood being of anguish is presented through his constant metaphor of life’s difficulties as a ‘bed’ of nettles. The questioning of ‘bed’ is referred due to the association of nettles; such a word that would usually have connotations of pain, harm, injury, impairment and destruction compared to that of comfort, condolence and rest, it creates an irony on the piece which could speak on behalf of the world and how ironic it is to bring a child into it but then see the dangers that come and so arguing that the parent is the first danger that is presented to the child, they are inevitably the reason they get hurt and have to face a world of commotion.
Also, nIt’s the idea of those “green spears” creating almost a restriction for parents as to what they can protect their kids from. “Spears” is interpreted as a hunting tool and a weapon; It was used in virtually every conflict up until the modern era, and so this retraction to this weapon nearly reiterates to the idea that parenthood lies on becoming a savage animal back - to the primal state in order to protect your child, showing no common sense but acting on your ‘animal’ (parental) instinct.
Scannell uses "Nettles" to show the anguish of parenthood. Parenthood for each parent is completely different however naturally nearly every parent feels the need to protect their children from the darkness of the big world.
ReplyDeleteFirstly Scannell represents the pain and hardships of parenthood simply from the child falling in the nettle bed:
“We soothed him till his pain was not so raw”
This implies that as a father along with the mother of his son, they have an unbreakable strong biological bond; as his father he can feel the pain his child feels hence why he knows when the pain is no longer “raw”. Moreover this suggests the need to protect your child as a natural instinct to keep them away from pain and remove any harm towards them; just as parents try their best to prevent you from making the same mistakes as you did, they too prevent you from feeling pain they may have felt.
Furthermore, despite the assumption the father of course is a man who is middle age, he is still naive with a child, all the things you’ve learned mean so little as there is no manual on how to bring up a child but the one thing parents know is to protect their child from evil no matter what it is.
“Had called up tall recruits behind the shed: my son would often feel sharp wounds again”
This implies the father sees this as some sort of war with nature. His naivety is clear as he refers to the nettles as an army, similar to what a young boy would do whilst he plays soldiers in the garden exploring nature, not something you’d expect a “wise” adult to say. In his eyes nature is the evil in the world he must his protect his son from, the irony of this is that nature is not evil and you cannot protect yourself from it as it continuously grows around us and is part of the survival of human beings.
On the other hand it is clear that the father’s futile anger is manifested in his destruction of the Nettle bed:
“and went outside and slashed in fury with it till not a nettle in that fierce parade”
This implies that the father is so angry with himself for allowing his 3 year old son to be hurt that he must ‘punish’ the very thing that hurt his child. As he cannot be angry at his young son for exploring his diverts all his fury and anger towards the nettle bed, which is a natural human thing instead of blaming ourselves we find comfort in blaming other people or objects for example when you hit your toe on the table leg you release all your anger at the leg rather than yourself as it is hard for us as humans to accept our flaws sometimes. The word “slashed” is extremely violent and creates a horrid image of pure rage, the innocence of exploring and learning as a child and your father explaining the rights from wrongs is tarnished by a complete different man who no longer holds the solemn image of an upset father who shares the pain with his child but instead a violent killer with a strict intent and no remorse.