In the critical praise for the poetry of Jim Daniels which fills the back cover of the anthology, Peter Stitt of the New York Times praises Daniels’s ability to “articulate the feelings of inarticulate people,” in his clear and often creative free verse style. But the culture which Daniels illuminates in his poetry is far from inarticulate, as the critic indicates; more precisely the culture articulates its feelings and emotions in a vernacular unfamiliar to those outside it and to those accustomed to the eloquence and expression of loftier themes in traditional poetry. Daniels simply distills the essence of these feelings through a gesture, a thought, an image or a scene more adroitly than the blue collar workers which surround him, using poetry to meet the hardships, hopes and concerns of this culture on its own terms. Throughout the poems contained in Punching Out, Daniels creatively manipulates the poetic devices of imagery, allusions, language and rhythm to vividly portray the oppressive environment of the factory and the demoralizing effects of the repetitive labor on its workers.
One image which Daniels frequently co-opts to highlight Fords’ ironic approach to its workers is the manufacturer’s slogan. Quality appears to be job one in Daniels’s portrayal so long as it does not impede on the bottom line. Buying a cheap radio from a merchant who assures him that he is purchasing “Quality Merchandise”, (author’s italics) the author curses the mal-functioning machine, remarking to himself that he should “know all about quality by how.” The shrewdly placed slash in the title of “Quality/Control”, again highlights the company’s ambivalent stance on quality versus profits. In the poem,…
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…over portrays the utopian vision of a fresco by Diego Rivera showing all type of workers, black and white, young and old working together for the common cause of the auto industry. Jim Daniels’s more disturbing vision shows that the industry’s real leveling effect comes not from some Socialist Unity of the workers of the world, but by stripping every worker equally of his or her human dignity. Daniels is able to capture, by the simplest of gestures and stories, the desperation of the auto workers’ lot. In “Old Green, he tells of the worker retiring after nearly half a century of dedication to the company, given an aerial photo of factory. “As hard as you look you’ll never find him,” notes Daniels, and all of his poetry eloquently reflects this plight of the worker.
Works Cited
Daniels, Jim. Punching Out. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.
Good and Evil in Good Country People
Good and Evil in Good Country People
In her short story, Good Country People, Flannery O’Connor employs all the elements of humor, irony and, paradox intermingled within the system of Christian belief in evil and redemption. This is no more evident than in the character of Joy, the daughter, who had lost a leg in a hunting accident at the age of 12 and who now has a wooden leg in his place. Throughout the story, it becomes increasingly clear that Joy’s physical affliction is closely paralleled by a spiritual one as well. As the narrative unfolds, the great lengths Joy has gone to recreate her inner self, her soul, are revealed in painstaking detail. It appears she has succeeded in fashioning her own soul into a spirit that is as hard and unyielding as the prosthesis that now takes the place of her missing naturally soft and flexible appendage.
In Christian society and belief, as well as many other religions, the one true possession that a person has total control over is their everlasting soul. It is this spirit that makes one truly unique from everyone else. The fight within one’s self between good and evil and the day to day struggle to ensure that the goodness prevails is the focal point of a true believer’s life. It is only by this triumph on goodness that he can achieve Salvation in the eyes of God.
Joy, on the other hand, seems intent on building barriers around her soul that would make it as rigid and unfeeling as her wooden leg. As did the surgeon who had to perform the prosthetic surgery years before to replace a natural part of her physical body, she is apparently trying to perform this same function with the spiritual side of herself as well. She has taken great care to recreate her « self » into one th…
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…ears were now completely useless. To be an atheist and realize, not that there is a God, but discover there is a Devil, must be a very chilling and disheartening experience. For if there is definitely one, there must be the other.
Works Cited
Asals, Frederick. Flannery O’Connor : The Imagination of Extremity. The University of Georgia Press : Athens, Georgia, 1982.
Brinkmeyer, Robert H. The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor. Louisiana State University Press : Baton Rouge, Louisiana , 1989.
DiYanni, Robert. Literature Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. McGraw Hill : Boston, Massachusette, 1998.
Eggenschwiler, David. The Christian Humanism of Flannery O’Connor. Wayne State University Press : Detroit, Michigan, 1972.
Feeley, Kathleen. Flannery O’Connor : Voice of the Peacock. Rugers University Press : New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1972.