Essay on Language, Imagery, and Symbolism in To Be of Use

employ of Language, Imagery, and Symbolism to Develop the Theme of To Be of Use In the minds of intimately people, the words, hard proceed and heavy labor carry a contradict connotation. What these words imply is not something that is generally welcomed with enthusiasm but is a great deal accepted either by force or obligation. Marge Piercys poem To Be of Use conveys an opposing connotation about the idea of feat. The primal authorship of the poem is that satisfaction, gratification, and self-fulfillment can be attained by using ones capabilities to serve a functional purpose in life, for it is the touch sensation of the speaker that an idle existence has no value or significance because it is worthless, vain, futile, and pointless. Piercy uses tropical language, imagery, symbolism, description, and details to develop this theme throughout the poem. Piercy begins developing the theme in the first stanza by describing The type of people she loves the best (1). Piercy sta tes that they jump into work head first/without dallying in the shallows... (2-3). With this imagery Piercy reveals that she admires individuals who argon not shocked of work rather, they tackle their jobs head first/without dallying ( ) in other words, they are not lazy and do not delay or elongate the completion of their duties. Piercy adds that the people she regards highly ... swim off with sure strokes intimately out of sight (4). With this image Piercy indicates that these adored individuals work with so such(prenominal) confidence and diligence that often they become so busy that their work puts distance between them and those with whom they associate or live. Further, Piercy declares that They seem to become natives of that element, / ... ... the fruits of a persons hard labor will linger to give honor to their warehousing after their death. However, Piercy adds that they were made to be used to indicate that this wont be the incase if a persons labor is not the fruit ful productive type. Piercy concludes by stating that The hill cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real (25-26). With this figurative language Piercy develops the theme by affirming that people need to be unstrained to work hard in order to reach the satisfaction of accomplishing something that is important in their lives. In her poem, Piercy developed the theme of success through agile participation in hard work through her use of language. whole kit and boodle Cited Piercy, Marge. To Be of Use. Responding to Literature. 2nd ed. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Mountain View, CA Mayfield Publishing Company, 1996. 596.