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Image of Adrienne RIch from the New Yorker<\/p><\/div>\n
One of the most influential books published during the Second Wave was Adrienne Rich\u2019s collection of poetry Diving into the Wreck<\/i>. In \u201cRape,\u201d one of the key poems in this collection, Rich tells the story of a woman recounting the details of her recent rape to a policeman. This story takes place in the early 1970\u2019s, in an era when men scoffed at women who claimed they were raped and would often accuse them of adultery. Even the woman in Rich\u2019s poem knew that because of the policeman\u2019s pre-judgments, she would be found \u201cguilty of the crime \/ of having been forced\u201d (Rich, lines 14-5). Through breaks in repetition and opposing descriptions, Rich conveys an image of hierarchy that displays the disturbing reality that the victims of rape are themselves treated as criminals.<\/p>\n
The line, \u201che has access to machinery that could kill you,\u201d (Rich, line 7) places \u201che\u201d as the subject of the independent clause, \u201cyou\u201d as the direct object of the adjectival dependent clause, describing \u201cmachinery.\u201d Sovereignty belongs to the subject noun in any clause, but supreme power belongs to the subject that reigns over the independent clause. Adjectival dependent clauses act in service to the noun or pronoun they describe. In line seven, the clause \u201cthat could kill you\u201d is the humble servant to \u201cmachinery.\u201d This along with the fact that \u201cmachinery\u201d functions as nothing more than a lowly object of the preposition, forces \u201cyou,\u201d the inferior noun in the dependent clause, to the bottom of the totem pole. \u201cYou\u201d is powerless. Even line seven\u2019s syntax alone explains that \u201cyou,\u201d the rape survivor, exists in a state of the complete and total mercy to \u201che,\u201d a police officer, the man. In this way, Rich employs syntactic hierarchy to express the reality of the situation. \u201cTo him\u201d (Rich, line 14) stars line 14. Even though \u201cto him\u201d is a mere adverbial prepositional phrase, its physical placement at the front of a line, gives it power. \u201cYou have to confess\u201d (Rich, line 13) may be the core of the sentence, but because it lies buried at line thirteen\u2019s end and because of the enjambment, line thirteen has a less definitive tone. Syntactically, \u201cyou\u201d should be the sentence\u2019s focus. Truly, Rich argues, the rape victim should be the focus and her will should be justly served, yet, once again, the male figure denies her that right. The male figure steals power. His will, the will of the patriarchy, is served by the female in the end. Rich presents the entire story in an experiential way and uses second person point of view to augment the potency behind these demonstrations of power. Once line two introduces the possessive pronoun \u201cyour,\u201d all that follows put the reader directly into story. Whatever happens to \u201cyou,\u201d the injustice, the subjugation, effects the reader on a more personal level; thus, the reader tends to pay more attention to declarative sentences and tends to feel more demand from imperative sentences.<\/p>\n
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“Rape” poem by Adrienne Rich<\/p><\/div>\n
Rich employs parallelism and repetition to illustrate structure, which she proceeds to break in order to express the wrongfulness about the patriarchy\u2019s criminalization of rape victims. Rich utilizes this technique first in lines two and three, \u201che comes from your block, grew-up with your brothers, \/ had certain ideals\u201d (Rich, lines 2-3). The first two verb phrases mirror each other. Both lines follow the pattern transitive verb, preposition, possessive pronoun, object of the preposition. Both lines end with the same possessive pronoun and a word that begins with the letter \u201cb.\u201d Line three breaks this parallelism. Not only does \u201chad certain ideals\u201d (Rich, line 3) stand apart poetically but, due to its placement on a separate line, \u201chad certain ideals\u201d stands apart physically as well. Rich, creates this separation for two reasons. Fist, whereas the first two lines include an element each that the rape victim shares, line three does not possess such an element. This emphasizes the simple, though crucial, point that the rape victim does not share \u201chis ideals.\u201d Second, Rich uses this separation to highlight the great significance behind the man\u2019s \u201ccertain ideals.\u201d Line three is the shortest line in the entire poem, for it is the preface for what is to come. \u201cHad certain ideals\u201d foreshadows that those ideals will play a critical role in the lines to follow. In the end, it is because of the man\u2019s \u201cideals\u201d that the poem later states \u201che thinks he knows you [\u2026] He knows, or thinks he knows, how much you imagined; \/ he knows, or thinks he knows, what you secretly wanted,\u201d (Rich, lines 21, 24-5) metanoia correcting \u201che knows\u201d to \u201cthinks he knows\u201d in order to underscore the word \u201cthinks.\u201d It is because of the man\u2019s \u201cideals\u201d that he prejudged the person before him and \u201cthinks\u201d she is the criminal. It is because of the man\u2019s \u201cideals\u201d that no matter what the rape victim says or does or argues or proves, she will be condemned by the law. \u201cHis blue eyes,\u201d (Rich, line 16) is further defined in the appositive as \u201cthe blue eyes of all the family \/ whom you used to know,\u201d (Rich, line 16-7). Anadiplosis connects the single policeman to \u201call\u201d through the repetition of \u201cblue eyes.\u201d It is just the eyes of the police officer that look at the woman with condemnation and apathy. It is the eyes of everyone. Everyone, her entire society, looks at her who was raped with condemnation and apathy. The only word for word repetition that Rich never shifts or breaks occurs at the end of the poem, \u201cand if, in the sickening light of the precinct\u201d (Rich, line 27 and line 28). All repetition and parallelism until then possessed some qualifying feature or further distinction. Lines twenty-seven and twenty-eight do not, for unlike the others, Rich presents these lines as an unbreakable truth.<\/p>\n
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Picture of Adrienne Rich<\/p><\/div>\n
The everlasting truth resides in the word \u201csickening\u201d and in the way that the parenthetical \u201cin the sickening light of the precinct\u201d interrupts \u201cand if, [\u2026] \/ your details sound like a portrait of your confessor\u201d (Rich, lines 28-9). Throughout the poem, Rich presents various claims about the unjust nature of the patriarchy, and as she makes each argument, she provides slight glimmers of hope that change is possible. Until Rich describes the sick feeling that interrupts the woman\u2019s thoughts when she confronts an institution made to protect mankind, an institution made to condemn womankind. Even if the women changed the officer\u2019s \u201ccertain ideals,\u201d (Rich, line 3) even if the woman got \u201cto know him,\u201d (Rich, line 6) even if the woman convinced him of her innocence, her feelings towards the institution she faces and the way such feelings interrupt her thoughts would never change.<\/p>\n
To solidify the image of the rape victim\u2019s powerlessness against the authority that wrongs her, Rich makes intentional diction choices to describe the two characters present in the scene. While the police officer\u2019s description cloaks him in tainted power, the woman is left naked by comparison. Blatant opposition occurs in line one when Rich uses the predicate nominatives \u201cprowler and father\u201d (Rich, line 1) to define the cop. The word \u201cprowler\u201d evokes the image of a bestial creature that prowls in night looking for prey or something to steal. A \u201cprowler\u201d is untrustworthy. The word \u201cfather,\u201d however, is meant to represent a man who acts the leader and protector of his home and children. A \u201cfather\u201d should be trustworthy. Unnerving slant rhyme is the only similarity between these two descriptions. Rich employs these two words to expose the hypocritic nature of the cop\u2019s identity and to begin illuminating the woman\u2019s helplessness in comparison. The reference to the cop being \u201cin\u201d a \u201csilver badge\u201d (Rich, line 4) is a form of metonymy that represents a \u201cpolice uniform.\u201d The metallic badge functions as subtle reminder that the one who stands before the woman is not a man but a cog in a great and terrible machine. This slight reference to the cop\u2019s position within the machine makes the woman appear even weaker, for, the cop belongs to that same machine that Rich alludes to on line twelve. Line twelve describes the woman as having \u201cthe maniac\u2019s sperm still greasing [her] thighs\u201d (Rich, line 12). ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/files\/2019\/12\/Picture-of-Adrienne-Rich.jpg\")
\u201cGreasing\u201d is a metaphor in itself. The connection between \u201csperm\u201d and \u201cgrease\u201d illuminates the intentionality behind the word \u201cmaniac\u201d appearing so similar to \u201cmechanic.\u201d The man who raped her also belongs to that great and terrible machine, the patriarchy. Imagery in the fifth line of the cop being \u201con horseback\u201d (Rich, line 5) stages the cop as seated above the rape victim. The cop looks down upon her. This physical depiction joined with the simile in line eight, \u201clike warlords,\u201d (Rich, line 8) paints a portrait of the officer\u2019s tyrannical power. \u201cAmong trash\u201d (Rich, line 8) continues the imagery. All else in the portrait is depicted as garbage beneath the stallion\u2019s feet; hence, the rape victim is garbage too. These descriptions position the officer and the girl on polar opposite ends of the power spectrum.<\/p>\n
In the 1970\u2019s, men and women usually inhabited opposing ends of the spectrum, but society back then deemed raped women the lowliest of all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/p>\n
Rich, Adrienne. Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-1972<\/i>. 1st ed. New York: Norton, 1973. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cRape\u201d by Adrienne Rich One of the most influential books published during the Second Wave was Adrienne Rich\u2019s collection of poetry Diving into the Wreck. In \u201cRape,\u201d one of the key poems in this collection, Rich tells the story of a … Continue reading