Harwood essay - prize giving; father & child
... responders from Eisenbart in the same way that he has distanced himself from relationships of any emotional substance throughout his life. These are also important concerns in Harwood’s poem. Another significant symbol of Eisenbart’s negative realisation of his life can be found in the line “peered into a trophy which suspended his image upside down” thus encapsulating how this evening has inverted his self-image. Onomatopoeia is also evident in the line “the girls whirred with an insect nervousness” which enhances the atmosphere of the award ceremony for responders. As such Harwood’s mastery of language thus proves particularly powerful in conveying her main concerns about arrogance, vanity and power. In terms of critical readings, the application of a feminist reading reveals different concerns in the poem than what may be originally conceived. For example, a conventional feminist reading of the poem would view Eisenbart’s arrogant and self importance as representing the gender assumption across society that men are naturally superior to women even in academic matters. However this excessive pride is subsequently punished which can reflect an underlying desire among feminism to tear down patriarchy in the same way Eisenbart is here. However feminists may have concerns with the arguable objectification of the young girls as possessing sexual “voltage” rather than being valued on their own intellectual and personal merits. In a similar fashion, a postcolonial reading would seek to identify the ways in which power between groups has been renegotiated at the expense of white, western, patriarchal control. For example the obvious emergence of the titian haired girl and her competency for playing Mozart reflects the post colonial voice given to those outside the old political power structure which is represented by the pleading of the school to have their event legitimised by Eisenbart’s presence at the event. As such, even within the strict hierarchy of this girls school, the emergence of girls like the “girl with titian hair” represents dissent and disrespect for the colonial authority. Within the structure of a diptych Harwood’s Barn Owl within the larger Father and Child is concerned with a young girls’ shooting of an owl in a barn, which symbolically represents a painful acquisition of wisdom, not unlike Eisenbart in Prize Giving, in relation to understanding the consequences of our actions. Techniques that Harwood utilises to depict these concerns with this painful turning point in the protagonist’s journey towards maturation include imagery in the lines “hobbled its own blood” and “bundle of stuff that dropped, and dribbled … tangling in bowels” to confront the responder with the same graphic violence that the protagonist must deal with. Further evidence of Harwood’s mastery of language can be found in her use of first person narration in the lines “I watched, afraid/by the fallen gun a lonely/child who believed death clean/ and final” which succinctly encapsulates the painful catalyst for psychological transition into adulthood – something that her father’s direct speech, “end what you have begun” facilitates. Harwood uses the owl to symbolically represent wisdom gained by the protagonist while juxtaposing innocence and knowledge around this traumatic event. Completing this evocative diptych is the second part of Father and Child entitled Night Fall wherein some forty years later, the father from Barn Owl is now approaching death and his daughter pays tribute to his influence on her life. Techniques Harwood employs include affectionate imagery in the line, “your passionate face is grown to ancient innocence” in ...