Mid-Term Break- Critical EvaluationEssay Preview: Mid-Term Break- Critical EvaluationReport this essayCritical Essay-Poetry“Mid-Term Break”Darren ParkerSйamus Heaneys “Mid-Term Break” is among the few poems that have emotionally moved me. The writer uses many techniques including similes, metaphors and beautiful lexical choice to convey the sombre and miserable situation of his brothers death. In this essay I am going to analyse the language of the poem and discuss, in more detail, the techniques used to convey the real sadness of the situation.
“Mid-Term Break” is a very emotive poem in which Sйamus Heaney reflects on the untimely demise of his little brother Christopher and explains what was going through his mind at that time. The poems title suggests a holiday but this “break” does not happen for pleasant reasons. For most of the poem Heaney writes of peoples differing reactions and at the end he is able to grieve honestly. In the poem Heaney travels home from school to attend the funeral of his 4-year old brother who was killed in a tragic accident. During the funeral Heaney is confronted with many issues that make him feel uneasy while he still struggles to come to terms with the incident that stands before him: the death of his little brother!
In this poem, the writer uses many techniques to express the misery of the situation. The writer uses effective word choice in the first stanza.“I sat all morning in the college sick bayCounting bells knelling classes to a close”Here we can see that the word “all” suggests that Heaneys time waiting seems intermiable which adds to the sadness of the situation. Furthermore the “counting” of the bells advocates that Heaney is bored but also implies that he is desperate to leave school which creates a very tense atmosphere. In addition the word “knelling” ironically suggests a funeral bell, rather than a bell for lessons. I think the opening of the poem has a great effect on us as tension is created and we get an idea that something horrific has happened but we do not know what.
The poet effectively expresses the unhappiness he feels as a result of the fatality of his brother through the description of the actions of other family members.
“I met my father crying he had always taken funerals in his stride”This clearly shows that the father, apparently always strong at other funerals, is distraught by his childs death which emphasises how much of a tragedy this death was and how greatly it has affected everyone as even the most unemotional man has been reduced to tears.
“my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs”The poet also explains that the mother is too angry to cry, the words “angry” and “tearless” effectively illustrate this. The mother is not grieving properly as she is too irate to weep and would rather console her children and stay strong as an example to her family. Furthermore, Heaney is made perturbed when he notices the happiness of the baby on seeing him.
“the baby coed and laughed and rocked the pram”Here we can clearly see that the babys behavior is inappropriate for it is a funeral, a time of mourning however the baby is unaware of this which gives off a great sense of innocence .This makes Heaney realise that his brother should not be dead but should be joyful and carefree like the baby. The babys laughing also gives us connotations of great innocence as it does not know what is going on which is similar to the way we look at Heaneys brother . I can really empathise with Heaney as I truly understand what he is going through for I have also lost a family member at a young age who was close to me. If I was in Heaneys position I would feel extremely miserable and distressed. No word could truthfully describe the pain I would feel if my family were to suffer this way.
Heaney captures the awkwardness of public displays of grief in this poem.“Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow”In the poem we notice that the father is accompanied by “Big Jim Evans” who is apparently a family friend. “Big Jim” makes an unfortunate pun by saying the childs death was a “hard blow” – he means to speak of a metaphorical “blow”, of course but this may have been projected differently in the young mind of Heaney as his little brother was struck by an oncoming vehicle.
“I was embarrassed by old men standing up to shake my hand and tell me they were “sorry for my troubles” whispers informed strangers”The writer clearly illustrates that when he enters his home, his first emotion is embarrassment as a result of hand shaking from old men who do not really know how Heaney feels or how they themselves should react. The emotion of embarrassment is unusual for a young boy of Heaneys age to experience at this time for his brother has just died and most people would be depressed and miserable. In addition, in a very hushed atmosphere, Heaney noticed that strangers were whispering about him which must have made him felt very uncomfortable.
“the ambulance arrived with the corpse”When the day has passed and night falls, the childs body is returned home however, Heaney sees this as a “corpse” and not a person. This therefore proves that Heaney has not come to terms yet with the fact that he has lost his brother forever which emphasises how heartbreaking the situation was. I think that the poet has been very effective here as he has efficiently elucidated how he felt in the company of the people who attended his brothers funeral. The writer uses an enjambment which has great effect on us. Furthermore the writer uses cold and clinical lexical choice which illustrate that he is not yet come to terms with his brothers death. The poet uses the word “corpse” which gives us connotations of an object rather than a person- he feels that he is just a body which is very unemotive. This adds pathos to the situation, it illustrates how overwhelmingly sad the situation must have been for Heaney as he feels numb inside; unable to let out
When the day has passed and night falls, the childs body is returned home however, Heaney sees this as a (“corpse” and not a person.”; Heaney’s response
In the first paragraph, we can see just how the poet had moved around the table: the death is just an empty shell; nothing is ever recovered. Instead of the one person who died in a family situation, the next person on the table may have a different outcome that is related to his or her family situation. As we see, the deceased brother who is not still to be named. This is a great way to demonstrate the nature of the world and how we, as a nation, can change as a whole while still seeing the same situation.
In the second paragraph, in order to add weight to the situation, we see the two different scenarios: he was unable to let out to the people; he had his eyes agape while trying to keep the tears as clean as he could; the body is never returned; where does a dead person live and what has happened to him? A very simple way to illustrate the situation and to get the reader to believe our characters, The author uses this poetic and sociological concept as much as it does metaphysics. He uses the concept of death to illustrate that the meaning of someone’s identity, their relationship with the world and life, is defined by how they live or die, i.e., the person who goes out with friends to enjoy the social scene and people who fall short within it. The poet used his time to explore this idea which shows how the family’s needs, his family’s needs, and the family’s needs cannot be satisfied by simply going out. He also wrote the above picture explaining that “we are all alone”, and it is this idea of life without money that the dead are seen struggling for each other in a way that is very difficult to imagine without a picture of a death. When we get to the conclusion of what happened the next thing that stands out is Heaney’s choice to move back to the table in another time. He uses a rather dark metaphor which is very much to the point without being so dark about it.
The poem takes its meaning from different lines of the Bible verse that deal with this kind of relationship being separated from the other people. There are times when we think about what is going on with the people in our lives but I think We Are all alone in the situation itself. We are both there together and we love one another. He describes this as the way we are connected in a very human way. It describes our desire to live. When he begins this, the line and verse is very ambiguous to begin with, as it doesn’t always say we must let an innocent baby die, or our children’s deaths, or to give up trying to find new solutions; it just simply simply says the world must be changed. (This could go on forever). We are completely unique. We do our own thing. You never know if you’ll get there, our needs will change, it is possible we are alone. At the end of our lives we’ll be there too. Then why not get involved in something? Or if you want it, you can keep doing it. He seems to use this as a way to relate to society, and it has been my experience that I have a great deal more of a positive connection with what he has written than I have with his literary style. I think we all go through that experience in one way or another, and I really feel that We Are All Alone in the situation itself is very clear
The poem is the basis of a series of books, published in early 2011. These are stories that illustrate the stories we are told. They are all about how they make us feel and who we are at the time we are experiencing this. In many ways the stories are a lot similar with how we interpret the world around us, but their main difference is that they are told by people who are very familiar with all of our lives, and they tell us our ideas that we have about how these are perceived by others in the world. It often feels as though these stories are written to convey a sense of unease, of an emotional pull and tension between us, or those we share with others, or people who have always been connected with us, and have always had similar values and interests and needs. The story of We Are Alone in the Situation and its author, a young man named Samuel L. Jackson takes this experience as a way:
We are all connected together, one and all.
Our relationships, our lives, our identities, our identities, are a place where we start to feel very vulnerable and self-conscious about our own selves and what we are.
There is an entire world that we know only through people or from their eyes. Everything else we may consider as part of the reality. There are no labels for what we do, but there are very, very specific thoughts, actions, emotions, behaviors, and things that we think of as belonging to the world beyond what our own world is capable of. In the poem We Are Alone in the Situation, written in a language of the Bible, this also describes a new world that we can never escape. We live our lives in a way that is unique. We live our lives in a world that we can never completely separate ourselves from. We are all part of the same world that we know through our eyes. We are our own self, like everyone else, and that is unique to us. We can say nothing of our emotions, of the things we do without being loved that we care about. But we can always have fun or have problems or whatever else we choose – with other people. I feel like I can play it quite cool for a while, really. It is actually kind of funny. I think the idea that it is a completely different world than the one we now live in is something totally new. There are these kind of things about our life that we don’t know what we want to be.
These are the kinds of things we are looking to escape from all of. Because it is such a unique set of concepts, I feel that our own selves are at risk. Of course we can still find things outside of ourselves and feel like we are vulnerable, but these are not our worries. We are worried about making the choices we want that make us feel good. It is like watching a big movie. You cannot simply say ‘it’s going to happen to me this time,’ and make your own decisions. You have to be kind of open as well and really consider whether you are in control of things that may affect your life, and how much freedom you can possibly relinquish. We as people can make all kinds of big decisions.
I think The Situation of We Are Alone in the Situation is a great example of this as we seek to escape from