In On the Bus with Rosa Parks, Rita Dove displays the voice of young African American women throughout time that have been suppressed. Throughout the collection, she uses incredible imagery and diction that allow readers to feel they are living through the experiences as well. Rita Dove is known for her ability to infuse history into beautiful poetry seamlessly, and use symbols to do so. Although Rita Dove 's key symbol of heat in On the Bus with Rosa Parks appears to represent damage and pain, it demonstrates in five sections that despite being marginalized throughout history, women have a vast amount of hidden strength.
It is true that heat is used in the collection to show damage and pain. As a historical poet, it is no surprise Rita Dove uses burning crosses in this Civil Rights centered collection. The burning cross in African American yards cause them emotional trauma as well as hesitance in pursuing their rights. In addition, Dove repeatedly references stoves, hot asphalt, and flames. She uses the physical effects of heat to demonstrate the pain women go through. First, a woman named Lucille is mentioned. She cooks for her husband although she can hardly stand as she is nine months pregnant and he hardly notices
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Firstly, in the poem “I Cut My Finger on Purpose”, Lucille’s daughter says she burned herself without a wince (Dove,28). This continuation of heat which causes Lucille pain until she is no longer phased by it adds significance to Rita Dove’s overall message of strength women possess. The pain she felt at the stove is representative of the hardships that strengthen her such as her husband’s alcoholism and domestic duties. In addition, the woman walking down the street in her skirt ignores the men and their crude comments. She “sweats and struts down the sidewalk”. It is the poems in which heat causes women pain but strengthens them simultaneously that tie the collection