Silent Treatment Poem Analysis

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Treatment This poem, “Silent Treatment”, is all about the apathy that individuals possess when dealing with the urban poor or suffering in general and I like it because it successfully managed to convey the theme without many mistakes. Although there are mistakes they do not really take the reader away from the mood, tone and setting created by the poem. I will be going into what, for me, makes the poem good, as well as the mistakes that I noticed and lastly the overall effect it had on me. First off is the consistency of the imagery and the figures of speech. The poet does a very good job of creating tension by juxtaposing symbols of wealth, urbanization and the world with the issue of poverty. By showing the small sounds and details present …show more content…

It is all about different people from different social classes and economic backgrounds who are all living underneath the regime of a dictator. The novel contains a lot of themes from the westernization and globalization of the Philippines to the censorship and the abuses that happened during the Marcos era but somehow the novel manages to discuss all of them quite thoroughly albeit indirectly. In general I find the book an extremely fascinating read for a number of reasons which I will discuss in a few …show more content…

I believe that this essay managed to convey the thoughts and emotion of its writer very eloquently. The essay talks about a girl and the significance of her sense of hearing and she expresses its importance by relating different sounds to certain experiences throughout her life. The essay possesses a lot of qualities that I admire and I will discuss them all one by one. The first thing I want to discuss is the way the writer highlights sounds in the essay. With the mention of actions like lullabies, singing and shouting the writer was able to create a very vivid picture of the different experiences she narrates in the story. She also starts off every experience with a description of a sound associated to it which further strengthens the association between hearing and experiencing and living. Another thing that I liked was how she contrasted her view of the world as a kid with the view of the world as she grew older. At the start of the essay she discussed the different sounds she heard as child, from her mom singing to her to the sounds of the ocean she heard by putting a shell to her ear. These experiences and how they were portrayed seemed happy and vibrant but as the writer grows older it becomes clearer that the world she now lives in is more grounded, more urban, and lonelier because her life in the apartment is very subdued. All of this combine to convey the message that being exposed to silence makes you appreciate the sounds and by extension the