Juxtaposition

O JUXTAPOSITION

JUXTAP OSITION? what is O

Juxtaposition is a placement of two words / descriptions / concepts literally or figuratively next to each other to present a comparison or contrast

Juxtaposition causes readers to stop and reconsider the meaning of the text through contrasting images / ideas / motifs


Modernist poetry played extensively with juxtaposing images, inserting unrelated fragments together to create wonder and interest in readers


BISHOP, PLATH, FROST, STEINBECK’S selected works

juxtaposition in

JUXTAPOSITION in BISHOP’S work

SANDPIPER

SANDPIPER juxtaposition in

The vast and large: “roaring alongside” “bound to shake” “Atlantic drains” “Sea of Atlas”, the 2nd

largest of world’s oceanic divisions

The power & immensity of the surrounding

The vast and large: “a sheet/of interrupting water comes and goes/and glazes over his dark and brittle feet”

Ability to encompass; the vastness meets the sandpiper


The minute: “watching his toes” “His beak is focused” “spaces of sand between them” “grains” The smallest parAcle

for one to discern

Small parts of the body

A minute focus



Purpose and message:

To mark and address the coexistence of the vast and the minute



Though the world is large and encompassing, one can still observe minute details, and find deeper meaning in the minute

THE FISH

THE FISH juxtaposition in

Beauty: “full-blown roses” “fine rosettes of lime” “like a big peony”

A romanAc reading; see parts of the fish as beauAful elements rather than ugly fixtures

Ugliness: “speckled with barnacles” “frightening gills,/fresh and crisp with blood”

A grotesque image; an existence of the undesirable



The recognition of ironic beauty – finding beauty in the ugly



Finding beauty in the ugly becomes Bishop’s revelation and victory – “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!”


JUXTAPOSITION in PLATH’S work

YOU’RE

YOU’RE juxtaposition in

The pleasant: “clownlike, happiest on your hands” “my little loaf”

A suggesAon of clumsiness; affecAonate and upliFing descripAon

A warm image; tone of affecAon and tenderness

The pleasant: “snug as a bud and at home”

SuggesAon of a potenAal to bloom in beauty

SuggesAon of comfort and security


The less appealing: “moon-skulled” “gilled like fish”

A grotesque image

A darker and unseHling image


The less appealing: “trawling your dark as owls do”

Heaviness in image, suggesAon of something sinister



The juxtaposition reflects Plath’s ambivalent attitude towards pregnancy and motherhood


JUXTAPOSITION in FROST’S work

BIRCHES

BIRCHES juxtaposition in

Truth versus imagination: “I like to think some boy’s been swinging them./But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay/As ice storms do”

The persona fantasizes about a boy bending the branches.

The truth behind the bending is the ice-‐storm

Earth versus Heaven: world of the treetops and above

earth below


Burdens; difficulAes and drudgery of the everyday

EARTH ”It’s when I’m weary of considerations,/And life is too much like a pathless wood”


Earth versus Heaven:

”It’s when I’m weary of considerations,/And life is too much like a pathless wood

Dante’s Inferno: “I found myself obscured in a great forest,/ Bewildered, and I knew I had lost the way.”

Earth versus Heaven: EARTH

Dante firstly reaches upon a great forest in his journey to heaven. Frost describes life as a pathless wood


Swinging and climbing away from earth, toward the ethereal, transcendence

Earth versus Heaven: HEAVEN

”Toward heaven” “I’d like to get away from earth

awhile”



Permanence versus impermanence:

Heaven as a permanent escape; transcendence as a final desAnaAon

“not to return” “swinger of birches” Swinging to experience a temporary escape; A two way journey: “good both going and coming back”


After presenting the two ends of the spectrum, Frost chooses one end over the other



He rejects the true reason behind the bending of the birches, favoring imagination and escape, but…



… on the other hand makes it clear that a complete escape into heaven is not desirable (favoring reality, earth)



Resolution: Earth as “the right place for love” Life, an embodiment of imagination holds a potential for liberation


JUXTAPOSITION in STEINBECK’S work

The Chrysanthemums

The juxtaposition in

Entrapment/suffocation: “on every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot”

The landscape harbors a macro sense of suppression

Chrysanthemums

Hope: “positive yellow flowers” “there’s a glowing there”

SuggesAon of glimmer of hope

The juxtaposition in Chrysanthemums

Strength :

Strength and power in exhibited in Elisa’s hands and movements

“terrier fingers” “over-eager, over powerful”


Vulnerability:

Tears as sign of weakness; vulnerability is demonstrated in Elisa’s behavior

“she was crying weakly-like an old woman”



Steinbeck presents Elisa as a complex character who possesses both strength and vulnerability



While her vulnerability may mark her predetermined or self-imposed role as a housewife, her strength marks her potential to be a liberated woman



The juxtaposition of natural elements in the setting helps to establish a macro sense of suppression with the presence of a possibility, or a spark of hope for Elisa


writers’ usage of juxtaposition in selected works

comparison of

Use of juxtaposition to EMPHASIZE on the subject of greater s i g n i f i c a n c e

Use of juxtaposition t o m a r k t h e CONTRADICTION and ENIGMATIC nature of the subject o f d i s c u s s i o n

Use of juxtaposition to EMPHASIZE on the subject of greater significance

Sandpiper

BISHOP

The minute, and the treasures found

The vastness

× let life be frittered away by greatness and complexity ★ find treasures in particularities

★ The ability to see beauty in ugliness is one thing worthy of celebration


The Fish

BISHOP

Beauty – part of her revelaAon and victory

Ugliness

★ Earth is the better place for love ★ Being a swinger of birches is the best place one could be in


Birches

FROST

ImaginaAon Earth Temporary escape

Truth Heaven

Permanent escape

★ Ambivalence towards pregnancy and motherhood

You’re

PLATH Use of juxtaposition to mark the CONTRADICTION and ENIGMATIC nature of the subject of discussion

Pleasant Less appealing

Use of juxtaposition to mark the CONTRADICTION and ENIGMATIC nature of the subject of discussion

Entrapment Strength

Hope Vulnerability

STEINBECK

The Chrysanthemums

O THANK YOU

Juxtaposition

Education

birches juxtaposition

sandpiper juxtaposition

youre juxtaposition

juxtaposition infishbeauty

juxtaposition infishugliness

juxtaposition o

juxtaposition infrosts

birches purpose