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Jack Park
Mr. Damaso
Honors English II, Period 3
6 May 2012
Accepting the Flaws
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is
that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to
give.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the first president of the United
States. After centuries of racial prejudice and hatred, Barack Obama, among other figures like
Marin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, stands as a symbol of the progress that the United States
has made in accepting people of varied races. But without racism and segregation, the
courageous acts that these, and a great many other people, have made could never exist. People
fight and struggle with this concept of accepting both the fault and the beauty in life. This search
for closure permeates all levels of our society. In art, Michael Jackson in his song Man in the
Mirror, decides that one must accept their flaws by looking “in the mirror” and act to make a
positive change. Similarly, the concept of Realism in the visual arts finds the beauty and grace in
depicting the world for what it is, with all of its imperfection and asymmetry. However, this idea
is not confined to only the visual or musical arts. It also extends into the vast field of the literary
arts.
One group of literary artists in particular, poets, seek to find a solution to how one should
accept life. While several poets scratch the surface of this question, Linda Pastan cuts through
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the outer membrane of simple platitudes to find a deeper meaning through her poetry. Linda
Pastan is an American poet who is famous for her extensive use of symbolism. Born in 1932, she
currently lives in Potomac, Maryland. She has often been considered for the national poet
laureate of America, and has served as the poet laureate of Maryland. Her poems are often
referred to as both deep and meaningful through her extensive use of imagery. While Linda
Pastan has written many wonderful poems, her poems “Grudnow”, “I am Learning to Abandon
the World”, and “To a Daughter Leaving Home” most directly seek the answer to the meaning of
life. These three poems share a theme of accepting both the good and the bad or imperfect in life.
While one is tempted to dive directly into the deep imagery and precise diction of Linda
Pastan’s poems, it is equally important to observe the author herself. She was born in New York
City in the year of 1932, and she still lives to this day (Linda Pastan). Mrs. Pastan graduated
from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a B.A. degree. She graduated from
Simmons College in Boston with an M.L.S. degree. Finally, she graduated from Brandeis
University in Waltham, Massachusetts with a M.A degree (Linda Pastan). Linda Pastan married
Ira Pastan and become a housewife which made her very unhappy (Linda Pastan). Her husband,
noticing her unhappiness, encouraged her to return to poetry. This unhappiness shaped some of
Linda Pastan’s poetry (Linda Pastan).
Linda Pastan’s struggles within her life mirror her interesting and unique style.
Considered a master of imagery, Mrs. Pastan ignores the traditions of both meter and rhythm.
This leads her to write almost entirely in free verse, a form that is not confined by meter, rhythm,
rhyme scheme, or any other constraints, save for the ones the poet chooses for him or herself. In
order to compensate for her seeming lack of order, Pastan makes use of very specific diction,
pursuing her subject with a needle-thin precision (Franklin). She uses imagery to examine the
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difficult themes of morality, love, the inevitability of death, and the meaning of life. One of the
greatest influences to Pastan’s poetry was the interruption of her literary career when she
assumed the role of housewife (Franklin). Pastan defends her lifestyle as a housewife, saying that
a housewife experiences both great joy and great sacrifice. The historical era and events that
raged about Linda Pastan’s head as she wrote also played a large influence on her poetry.
Linda Pastan lived through multiple periods of great turmoil as well as growth. She was
born in the early 20th century, just before the rise of industrialism and the dawn of globalization.
She also lived through WWII and saw the rise of domesticity. Clearly one of the most prominent
of the events she witnessed was World War II. Linda Pastan is Jewish and the anti-Semitic Nazi
movement had a large impact on her poetry. During the Nazi regime, the German people wanted
legal discrimination and action taken against the Jewish people (Hartman). Rather than shying
away, Linda Pastan accepts the terrible atrocities of the Nazi regime and courageously expresses
the fear it caused in her poetry. Not many poets, or people for that matter, are comfortable
expressing their fears for the world to see. Another important historical event that added context
to her poetry was the decline of the classic humanitarian education. People had lost sight of the
value of humanities and the arts. They did not realize that true humanities promote many positive
values, including integrity and honesty. They help us to become less and less like animals, and
more civilized (Hintz). Pastan realized the need for the humanities to re-inspire people and is one
of the reasons that her poems are so meaningful.
While Linda Pastan’s body of work expresses themes of morality, love, the inevitability
of death, and the meaning of life, the poems “Grudnow”, “I am Learning to Abandon the
World”, and “To a Daughter Leaving Home” specifically deal with accepting the beauty in the
flawed nature of life. These poems express an acceptance of hardship, of loss, and of change.
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Speaking generally, critics say that the poem “Grudnow” is about a grandfather and his
description of his hometown, Grudnow, before immigrating, and a view of Grudnow, through the
eyes of his granddaughter as well as her idea of what life in Grudnow would be like for her
(Constantakis 72). Likewise, the poem, “I am Learning to Abandon the World” is about the slow
and inevitable approach of death, and accepting this fact. (Overview). Finally, the poem “To a
Child Leaving Home” is about a child’s future adulthood and her departure from the mother’s
life (Greenbaum). These are scholars and critics didn’t seem to exhibit any sort of ulterior
motives or bias beyond personal preference. Rather, they sought to critically analyze and review
her poetry and create accurate and reliable articles to be used in research.
While the general ideas within the poems are great, the deeper ideas unearthed by
analysis are even better. For example, Linda Pastan’s poem "Grudnow", is about accepting the
hardships of life while also cherishing the joy in it. Constantakis believes the poem is about how
acknowledging both the painful and the pleasant moments of the past are equally important to
remembering it (Constantakis 76). The critic goes on to observe that one cannot truly recall a
memory without accepting all facets of it. If one only chooses to remember the good times and
ignore the hardships, then one warps and twists the past, making it less than it was before.
Therefore, one must accept the entirety of their past, both the ease and the struggles, in order to
respect its memory and pay it homage. In the text itself, the speaker recalls her grandfather
saying “He left… because there was nothing there” (Appendix A Lines 8-9). This excerpt from
the poem expresses the hardship of Grudnow, prompting her grandfather to leave and immigrate
to America. However, it is important to note that he still recalls the hardships endured there.
Later, the poem depicts the people as “standing/ against a landscape emptied/ of crops and trees,
scraped raw/ by winter” (Appendix A Lines 12-15). This also expresses the hardships in
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Grudnow. It emphasizes the burden of winter. Finally, the speaker recalls that her grandfather
“always/ sipped his tea through a cube of sugar/ clenched in his teeth, the way/ he sipped his life
here, noisily,/ through all he remembered/ that might have been sweet in Grudnow” (Appendix A
Lines 31-36). While his grandfather did recount the difficulties and hardship of Grudnow,
symbolized by the bitter tea, he also remembered the joy and happiness that may have been in
Grudnow, symbolized by the sugar cube. The fact that the grandfather lived life noisily implies
that he embraced his life, and that he enjoyed the sweet and good as much as possible. However,
his acceptance of the hardship of his life is symbolized by the fact that he drinks the bitter tea in
the first place. Rather than disregarding the tea and eating only the sugar cube, he accepts both
the struggles and the joy in life and combines the two in order to attain a full flavor and an honest
memory of his past. While this poem discusses accepting the hardships in life, the next poem
emphasizes accepting loss in life.
The poem “I am Learning to Abandon the World” outlines the acceptance of loss
throughout the course of life. One critic says that one of Pastan’s themes is that life is able to
temporarily defeat death and it is too good to give up (Overview). There is too much joy in life to
surrender each time one encounters the loss that death symbolizes; therefore, one must accept it.
In the poem, the speaker notes how “the world has taken/ my father, my friends” (Appendix B
Lines 6-7). This implies how her friends and father have either died or are no longer estranged.
The idea of losing one’s friends and family also symbolizes the loss that one will experience
through the course of life. Further into the poem, “And every night I give my body up/ limb by
limb, working upwards/ across bone, towards the heart” (Appendix B Lines 10-12). This excerpt
communicates the desolation felt in the face of inevitable death, and ultimately, more loss. The
speaker knows that death is inevitable and acquiesces to it. However, at the end of the poem, the
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speaker says that “I [the speaker] take my body back/ the sun lays its warm muzzle on my lap/ as
if to make amends” (Appendix B Lines 19-21). The speaker accepts loss and the inevitability of
death and decides to continue to live her life. Similar to accepting life despite painful losses, the
next poem is about accepting unwanted change in life.
The poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” expresses a need to accept the unwanted and
unforeseen changes in life. Greenbaum, a critic, says that the poem is about a child’s future
adulthood and departure from the mother’s life (Greenbaum). The mother in the poem has yet to
let go of her child and she does not desire the change in her lifestyle or in her child’s lifestyle.
Set in the pretense of a bicycle lesson, when the daughter pulls away from the speaker, she talks
about “my [the speaker] own mouth rounding/ in surprise when you pulled/ ahead down the
curved/ path of the park” (Appendix C Lines 7-10). This excerpt shows the unexpected nature of
the change. The mother was expecting to continue teaching her child about riding bikes and how
to live life. After the daughter pulled away, the mother noted that “you [the daughter] grew/
smaller, more breakable/ with distance” (Appendix C 15-17). Mrs. Pastan describes the great
amount of fear that the speaker felt with the change and the need to let go. She does not desire to
see her daughter hurt and wants to protect her child. The mother never wants the bike lesson,
being a metaphor for learning about life, to end. The final line of the poem consists of one word,
“Goodbye” (Appendix C Line 24). This emphasizes the acceptance of the mother. While this was
part of a larger sentence comparing her daughter’s hair to a handkerchief waving goodbye, the
only reason for the line break was to emphasize the closure that the poet wanted to bring to the
reader. The mother accepts the change that her daughter is undergoing, however unwanted or
unexpected.
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The messages about accepting the flaws in life that Pastan communicates are similarly
expressed in modern works of art. One group of artworks in specific, Project Err, deals directly
with the idea of greatness in flaws. Project Err prompted the laborers of mass production
facilities to produce an artistically flawed unit. The man who was the impetus for the project,
Jeremy Hutchison, is rather obscure, only claiming to be based out of London. It is apparent,
however, that he is still alive today, as he has a Twitter account. Jeremy Hutchison gathered the
artworks during the year of 2011 requesting flawed products to be used in an artistic function.
The Project Err includes things ranging from a backwards shovel, a toothless comb, and a
mangled chair. While there is a bit of humor or a satirical aura about the artworks, there is a
deeper message being communicated by them.
The whole of Project Err is based around the idea that there is still artistry and beauty in
the flawed objects in life. Jeremy Hutchison’s other works also are designed to make people
think. His art varies in style and doesn’t even seem to fall into a single specific style. Project Err
is an outcry for individualism in a world where the goal is to be identical. Almost all of the
works of Jeremy Hutchison praise the beauty of a flawed work. He takes the mistakes made by
workers and raises them up on a pedestal, praising their uniqueness. Jeremy Hutchison and Linda
Pastan both note the imperfections of the world. Similarly to Linda Pastan, Jeremy Hutchison
also recognizes that there is good in the world as well through the original design of the item. In
the end, Jeremy Hutchison and Linda Pastan both decide that life is better with both the good and
the bad.
Just as Linda Pastan’s message draws parallels to the visual arts, it also finds several
similarities in the literary arts. One book in particular, Jigsaw Soul by Mr. Scott Middlemist finds
a connection to Mrs. Pastan’s message as the main character struggles to accept the mistakes and
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tragedies of his life. In writing the novel, Mr. Middlemist draws primarily upon his experiences
as an infantry officer, but he also is influenced by his job as an English teacher. The novel is
formed upon pretense of PTSD, a disorder often witnessed in people who have served in the
armed forces. In addition, Mr. Middlemist uses many classical stories and mythologies,
reflecting his employment as an English teacher. The work mainly takes place in the present in
Iraq and an American mental ward, but it also takes place in during the events of November 11
in New York City and in San Francisco. Additionally, the book also takes place in the mythical
places of Camelot and Nordic Valhalla, as well as the burning inferno of hell. The main
character, Arthur Logan commits and witnesses terrible atrocities while serving in the field.
When he returns home, the trauma leads him to cause an accident killing hundreds of innocent
civilians. After being placed in a mental ward, Arthur Logan has to embark quests to recover the
lost parts of his soul and to accept the mistakes.
Scott Middlemist’s novel, similar to Linda Pastan’s poetry, communicates the need for
one to accept both their own mistakes and failings and to also accept their own positive traits and
successes they have made. During his quests, Arthur Logan receive help from George Patton.
However, Patton also has his own personal problems. Towards the end of the book Patton says
that “They’ve [his troops] been with me this whole time in The Scale. In my mind. In my heart.
Tonight, for the first time, I feel forgiven” (Middlemist 342). George Patton feels serious regret
for sending his troops to their death as well as for slapping and insulting some of his troops. He
regrets the shame he caused the troops he slapped, and he feels guilty for the men who died
under his command. However, he lets go of this guilt and shame and forgives himself, and
through this, opens himself up to being forgiven by the ghosts of his troops. Arthur Logan also
meets with his father who is good friends with Frank Lloyd Wright in the book. His father recalls
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how “Frank told me he wanted to go to his family. We came up several times, but he couldn’t
bring himself to go. He told me his biggest fear was facing his children” (Middlemist 356). Frank
Lloyd Wright was unsure and fearful of whether his children would forgive his mistakes. He,
with the help of Arthur and his father, comes to terms with this fear and moves on to the next
world. Finally, Arthur’s therapist, Dr. Simon, affirms that he should be released from mental care
at the end of the novel. She says that “Arthur Logan succeeded because he didn’t run from
responsibility. He carried it, came to terms with it, and was rewarded with the healing of his
psyche” (Middlemist 366). She tried to understand the burden of guilt and intense sadness that
Arthur had carried for the last two years. She aptly realized that Arthur had found peace with
himself, his flaws, his mistakes, and his shortcomings and accepted them. The characters in Mr.
Scott Middlemist’s book find and accept their flaws and become better and stronger people
because of this.
The literary arts, the visual arts, and above all poetry, have recognized the need for a
greater depth in education and within the arts. All of these different mediums have found the
same message they want to express; that life includes the bad, the flaws, the pain, and the sorrow
or the good, the perfections, the happiness, and the joy. Man has witnessed and experienced
some terrible things, but he has accepted these and decided to make a change for the better.
Similarly, people today need to realize that there is value in the bad in life. People struggle to
accept this fact, and they live much poorer lives because of it. This idea shapes everyone’s lives
and makes them stronger and more unique people. Linda Pastan’s work will be inspiring, leading
people to not only live better lives, but also to produce better art and literature to share with the
world.
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Appendix A
“Grudnow”, Linda Pastan (1986)
When he spoke of where he came from,
my grandfather could have been
clearing his throat
of that name, that town
sometimes Poland, sometimes Russia. 5
the borders pencilled in
with a hand as shaky as his.
He left, I heard him say,
because there was nothing there.
I understood what he meant 10
when I saw the photograph
of his people standing
against a landscape emptied
of crops and trees, scraped raw
by winter. Everything 15
was in sepia, as if the brown earth
had stained the faces,
stained even the air.
I would have died there, I think
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in childhood maybe 20
of some fever,
my face pressed for warmth
against a cow with flanks
like those of the great aunts
in the picture. Or later 25
I would have died of history
like the others, who dug
their stubborn heels into that earth,
heels as hard as the heels
of the bread my grandfather tore 30
from the loaf at supper. He always
sipped his tea through a cube of sugar
clenched in his teeth, the way
he sipped his life here, noisily,
through all he remembered 35
that might have been sweet in Grudnow.
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Appendix B
“I Am Learning To Abandon the World”, Linda Pastan (1981)
I am learning to abandon the world
before it can abandon me.
Already I have given up the moon
and snow, closing my shades
against the claims of white. 5
And the world has taken
my father, my friends.
I have given up melodic lines of hills,
moving to a flat, tuneless landscape.
And every night I give my body up 10
limb by limb, working upwards
across bone, towards the heart.
But morning comes with small
reprieves of coffee and birdsong.
A tree outside the window 15
which was simply shadow moments ago
takes back its branches twig
by leafy twig.
And as I take my body back
the sun lays its warm muzzle on my lap 20
as if to make amends.
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Appendix C
“To A Daughter Leaving Home”, Linda Pastan (1988)
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
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behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
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Appendix D
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Appendix E
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Appendix F
Project Err, Jeremy Hutchison 2011
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Bennes, Crystal. "Err." Icon Magazine. Icon Eye. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
Franklin, Benjamin, V. "Linda (Olenik) Pastan." American Poets Since World War II. Ed.
Donald J. Greiner. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol.
5. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Apr. 2012.
Greenbaum, Jessica. "Family Albums." The Women's Review of Books 6.1 (1988): 19.JSTOR.
Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
"Grudnow." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 32. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 72-90.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Apr. 2012.
"Linda Pastan." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center.
Web. 1 Apr. 2012.
Hartman, Dieter D. "Anti-Semitism and the Appeal of Nazism." Political Psychology 5.4 (1984):
635-42. JSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2012.
Hintz, Howard W. "The Humanities in American Culture." Prairie Schooner 27.2 (1953): 127-
35. JSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2012.
Hutchison, Jeremy. "Project Err." Jeremy Hutchison. 2011. Web. 01 May 2012.
<http://jeremyhutchison.com/work/project2.html>.
Kronen, Steve. "The Imperfect Paradise." Prairie Schooner 65.1 (1991): 130-33. JSTOR. Web.
16 Apr. 2012.
"Linda Pastan." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center.
Web. 1 Apr. 2012.
Middlemist, Scott. Jigsaw Soul. Scott Middlemist. Print.
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Moreno, J. L. "American Culture-in-Transition." Sociometry 18.4 (1955): 95-99. JSTOR. Web. 1
Apr. 2012.
"Overview: 'I Am Learning to Abandon the World'." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis.
Vol. 40. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Apr. 2012.
Pastan, Linda. "Grudnow." Poetry 149.1 (1986): 1-2. JSTOR. Web. 1 May 2012.
Pastan, Linda. "I Am Learning To Abandon the World." Poetry (1981). Poetry Foundation. Web.
5 Apr. 2012.
Pritchard, William H. "Poetry Chronicle." Poetry 143.4 (1984): 234-35. JSTOR. Web. 16 Apr.
2012.
Williams, Eliza. "CR Blog." Creative Review. Creative Review, 29 June 2011. Web. 23 Apr.
2012. <http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/june/jeremy-hutchinson>.
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