— writing commissions !! ☁ (essays)

When someone suffers a loss of a loved one, they often find comfort in unusual places that hold a fragment of the memory of the person they loved. These small symbols or moments can bring back a flood of memories of their loved one, which can be either joyful or saddening depending on the day. Regardless of the emotion it brings, simple activities can be stark reminders of the fragility of life and our loved ones. In Shaving, by Richard Blanco, the speaker of the poem experiences this return of memories when he regards his facial hair and shaves, reminded of the father that is no longer with him. Richard Blanco uses powerful nature imagery and comparison to express the speaker's complex associations with shaving and the fragility of life all in one in the form of the memories of the speaker's deceased father.

The speaker's father is revealed to have quietly slipped away when the speaker was at a young age, before it was his time to shave, showing the first immediate association with his father the speaker has. It is exceptionally hard for someone to cope with the loss of their parents and guardians, the people who shaped and taught them, regardless of when they lose them. However, it is made even more difficult when they lose their parents at a young age, missing out on all the time they should have gotten with them and all the lessons they were not taught. The speaker lost many opportunities and much needed information with his father due to his father's unfortunate loss. The act of shaving itself reminds him of his father simply due to the fact that his father was never around to teach him how to shave, as he says “the memory of him in tiny snips of black whiskers swirling in the drain -- dead pieces of the self from the face that never taught me how to shave” in regard to this. Blanco uses the fallen hair to directly represent the memory of his father, showing the association in a physical light. His beard, and shaving itself, is such a potent reminder of his father that the removal of his hair can be equated to watching pieces of his father slip away from him. This imagery is used to deepen the connection between the act of shaving and memories of his father, displaying to the reader just how deep this association lies. His beard and the act of shaving will forever remind him of the father who never taught him to shave in itself is a sorrowfully ironic line, an association lined with grief and reminiscence that can truly never be undone as his father can never be returned to him. He will forever mourn the fact his father never got the opportunity to teach him to shave and forever associate facial hair and the removal of it with the father who was removed from his life.

The idea of the memories of his father slipping away ties in with the idea of life being fragile and hard to truly catch, as the speaker claims that he can “most understand the invisibility of life” (27) when he shaves his beard away due to the memory of his father. It wasn't as though he could look at his father and see life slipping away from him. Instead, it simply quietly left, and as a result his father left as well. His father’s memory serves as a stark reminder of how unexpectedly life can leave someone, how it can go so quietly and not put up a fight at all. The speaker seems to resonate with this aspect, reflecting onto his father's death with imagery of silent events that happen in nature. Blanco uses this imagery from nature to show silent forces that more often than not go unnoticed to display this idea of life being invisible. He writes about “the bloom of spiderwebs each morning” and “the drink roses take from the vase” (5-7) to represent silent movements in nature that often go unnoticed and rarely thought of, and then compares life, more specifically the speaker’s father’s life, to the silent action of these forces. They are as natural as all these events and just as forgotten until it is gone. The speaker clearly has an outlook on life and death that has been warped and shaped by the quiet and more than likely unexpected death of his father at a young age, equating all these silent actions in nature to the way life operates. Life is fragile and can leave at the drop of the dime, it is impossible to see and it is impossible to measure to the speaker, so therefore it is invisible. This is no doubt a lasting impact from the grief of losing his parent and missing out on the opportunities he could have had with him.

Throughout the poem Shaving, Richard Blanco uses powerful imagery and comparison to display the speaker’s associations of his deceased father and the act of shaving off the beard that reminds him so much of his father. From using the quieter aspects of nature as a representation to life and death, to using the loss of the hair as the leaving of the speaker’s father, the imagery throughout the poem helps to paint a detailed picture of the speaker’s associations with shaving and life itself.

Adults often represent a symbol of authority to children, whether or not they resent the authority that has been placed on them. Adults are meant to be mature and collected, meant to be something to respect, and above all else meant to be symbols of what to do in a situation where you are lost. When this perspective that children have is challenged and they come to realize that adults are closer to them than they think, it can often be harrowing and feel like an uncomfortable experience to them. Much like when children see their parents cry and become awkward at the notion of it, it is odd for them to see an adult express feelings they do not associate with adulthood and maturity. Bruce Pike, from Breath by Tim Winton, is no exception to this category of children. Through his experience at the riverside, Winton uses carefully constructed imagery of the adult in the situation to highlight Bruce’s complex reaction to the events that unfold, showing him grow guilty and uncomfortable instead of harnessing the childish glee that he feels he should have felt.

Bruce involves himself with an unexpected situation when he goes to the river in order to dive, finding a woman and girls she is supervising panicking under the notion that a boy is drowning in the river. While he immediately springs to action on their behalf with the intentions of finding the boy, it is quickly revealed that it is simply a prank the boy is playing on the people on the riverside. He makes a spectacle of embarrassing the adult and provoking her into giving rather immature reactions. While Bruce figures he should feel glee in the humor of the prank, he instead finds himself feeling awkward and guilty. Watching a grown woman make a fool of herself due to someone else’s actions leave him unable to feel joy and instead finding himself full of discomfort. Tim Winton uses imagery to convey the immaturity of the adult’s behavior, comparing her reactions to one of a toddler rather than an adult, claiming she “made tanty noises like a toddler” and “charged into the water, lunging and swiping to no avail” in an effort to paint the picture of her behaving much like a toddler having a tantrum of rage. This spectacle is not behavior that one would expect from a grown woman, nevertheless in the eyes of a child who generally views adults mature and more collected. It is never enjoyable to watch someone embarrass themselves, never mind when that person is someone who is not meant to behave in the way they are behaving, leaving it unexpected and awkward. She has strayed from the way she is supposed to act, making things awkward for the eleven year-old boy who is not sure how to respond to her presence or actions now. While the act itself might be amusing for Ivan Loon, the boy who pulled the prank, when he ultimately leaves and leaves Bruce standing in the aftermath with the woman alone, Bruce can’t help but feel guilty and uncomfortable with the events that had just taken place at the riverside.

This is a notion that is reflected on by Bruce himself, as Winton writes from his perspective that he “realized it was more fun to pull this prank than it was to stand by while someone else did it. [He] began to feel more guilt than glee” to show the awkwardness of being forced to deal with the aftermath and the confrontation of the affected persons. To try and dispel some of this awkwardness, he goes to retrieve her shoes for her as they go down with the slow-moving current, noting that he “could bear it no longer”. After he explains the actions of the boy and the prank, not another word is shared between the two, as she simply snatches her shoes back and leaves with the girls, trying to reform some semblance of authority over the situation. It can be inferred from her behavior that she is embarrassed about what happened and her actions, and has nothing to say to the boy who witnessed the entire event and watched her behavior itself unfold. Winton’s way of describing her actions and the indignant way she behaves via imagery help to paint this picture and further display her un-adultlike actions in the eye of Bruce. Being forced to confront the reality of the prank and the way the person pranked behaved instead of simply being able to leave unbothered like Ivan Loon has made his reaction to the scene much different than if it had been him in the water.

Tim Winton uses imagery and detailed descriptions of character actions to convey a young boy’s reaction to an adult straying from his view of maturity and adulthood and the awkwardness that therefore ensues. Being forced to stay for the aftermath of a spectacle instead of being able to leave unscathed and unbothered changes the view of the event itself, and in Bruce’s case fills him with guilt and discomfort. Winton captures these feelings and the aspects of the event through imagery and comparison to paint a detailed picture of Bruce’s changed mood and view of the indignant woman.

Oftentimes authors have heavy emotions for their characters, as they are the ones who breathed life into them and painstakingly write out the details of this life. Part of these details is the character development the characters endure throughout the book, something that can often be messy and inconsistent and leave characters completely different from how they started. Good character development cannot be rushed or forced, and instead must be instilled tactfully. In the text In Marching Through a Novel by John Updike the speaker personifies the characters of the novel in an attempt to convey their obedience and reaction to this development, often portraying them as suffering and messy due to the forced nature of it. This usage of making them appear more human makes their plight seem more drastic and helps to more easily convey the issue.

Throughout the poem, the idea of change is heavily prevalent, as the speaker changes what they wish about the characters in their novel in order to progress, attempting to develop their characters further. However, this change is portrayed as messy and out of order, as though the speaker does not truly know what they want yet. The characters "change clothes and mannerisms, drop a speech impediment" and (8-9)"develop a motive backwards to suit the deed that's done" (10-11). The sudden changing of their clothes and mannerisms, going as far as suddenly switching the way they speak, is a sign of rushed and bad development. When writing, a character cannot suddenly become something different without reason or slow progression, as it changes what the character represented before. Furthermore, developing a motive backwards can warp and change the text incredibly, and the reasoning for something should be taken into account before the action takes place. Otherwise, as it is performed backwards, and can ruin the importance or meaning and feel forced in. These lines serve to display the speaker as unsure and unorganized, rushing through development of their characters without regard to how it affects the book and the characters themselves. They also serve as early personification. The characters are described as taking the actions, but they are under the control of the speaker, behaving with "instant obedience" (7) as they are at the speaker's whims. This change is being placed upon them no matter what their opinions may be. The personification of the characters, making them be seen as living things, is intended to portray the suffering of the characters personality wise with real suffering. Updike writes that "they extend skeletal arms for the handcuffs of contrivance" (12-13) and that they "look toward [the speaker] hopefully .. for a clearer face" (16-18) to further accentuate this concept. The speaker's continued push for quick and unsteady development have left them bound to these ever-changing whims, unable to develop and skeletal as characters. They plead with him "for a clearer face" (18) as though pleading to be portrayed more clearly with caring development rather than forced to march on and progress through the sake of the story at the cost of themselves. This personification and portrayal of genuine human emotion from these characters makes their issue seem more real and dire, as the effects of bad characterization are painted on a more grand scale. They are obedient and resigned to the speaker's whims, as they are the speaker's creations and characters, but they are underdeveloped and in misery due to the way of which their story has been written.

This poem warns of the importance of genuine and well thought out character development rather than forcing them to change on a whim to fit a new idea. To have well cared for and 'well nourished' characters, they must be able to naturally develop alongside the text. Otherwise they will come out with a fraction of the life you intended and many will "fall forgotten in the trench work of loose threads" (27) along the way. This warning is heavily delivered through the personification of the characters themselves, as their issues and plights are all presented as though they are living things reacting to the speaker's writing and action in real time; and as though they have real feelings and inhibitions that go unheard and not cared for. This usage of emotion and personification make the issue seem more real and pressing and help to get Updike's message across.