Aubert's Viewpoint Of Giovanni's Poem example essay topic

Fran Dorn, the host of our video, is an intellectual person who holds a special appreciation for all forms of literature. She graduated with a master's degree in theatre from a New York school and is now an actress who enjoys reading in her spare time. Fran views each work of literature as a gift. She states that literature is very hard to define and that although each reader must find his or her own definition of literature, we can examine how and why literature works. Throughout the video, many views on literature are offered. Fran concludes that although literature comes in many forms, it must have a written quality to it.

She believes that this creates a relationship between the author and the reader of the piece. As the reader makes his or her way through a piece of literature, Fran feels new worlds are opened and the reader is enriched through the experience of literature. All literature has meaning, but it means different things to each person because we each bring in different experiences. Fran concludes that literature has great meaning because it is written not only from the author's mind, but also from the author's heart; the whole person is involved in writing. I feel Fran would have us regard literature in the same way that she does. Fran desires for us to consider the meaning and value in each piece.

She would like us to appreciate the value of literature and to discover the joy in it that she treasures. The critics on our videotape offer three different interpretations of Nicki Giovanni's poem "Woman". I found the first critic's viewpoint to be the most reasonable, logical interpretation. Alvin Aubert, a professor of English at Wayne State University, feels that the poem was written in a satirical tone with an emphasis on how women are not taken seriously in the world today. However, he also concludes that at the end of the poem, the woman has decided to accept this. Even though she is not taken seriously as a woman, she will still continue to be a woman.

I agree with Aubert's point of view because I feel there is evidence in the poem to support his interpretation. Throughout the poem, each time the woman wanted to be something, the man rejected that role for her, thus not taking her seriously, nor recognizing her value in that rule. When "she wanted to be a blade of grass", he refused "to be the dandelion". And when "she tried to be a book", "he wouldn't read".

Here the reader sees that the man did not take her seriously as a book and he refused to even attempt to learn something from her by reading her. Clearly, the man in this poem has not taken the woman seriously or taken the time to find value in her. Aubert feels that at the end of the poem the woman decides it is acceptable for her to be a woman despite the fact that women are not taken seriously by our culture today. This is shown in the last stanza of the poem, when Giovanni states "she decided to become a woman and though he still refused to be a man she decided it was alright". Although he refused to be a man by not recognizing the significance of woman, she accepted that and decided to be herself, a woman. I prefer Aubert's viewpoint of Giovanni's poem "Woman" because it is logical and supported by evidence throughout the poem.