in Just poem reflection

This blog allows me to reveal my personal ideas on the poem we read in class recently. My thesis statement was In the poem “in Just”, e.e. cummings explores the relationship between the old man and the children, and reveals the loss of innocence of the children through religious symbolism and imagery in the poem.

 This outline utilizing a “mad lib” type structure allowed me to have a centralized idea and focus. Before I could write this I came up with essential questions. I saw religious symbolism in the last stanza which tied the whole poem together. Describing the old man as goat-footed creates an almost inhumane, sinister, creature-like figure in our mind. I believe cummings was comparing him to the devil, because the devil is able to appear in many disguises. This led to the unanswered question of why he is depicted as a crippled old man, but also as queer and able to attract children so easily. The old man is strong and powerful for such an “old man” almost God-like and calling the children to their death. In order to fully understand his poems you cannot bind yourself to one literary device.

I began to reread the poem and take notes on the structure. The first three stanzas use a slight separation, but the final stanza is completely broken off. I noticed the constant repetitions of statements such as “whistles far and wee” and “the close proximity of the children’s name such as “eddieandbill and bettyandisbel”. This represented a common bond between them. The reader could physically see that all the children all had the same result when dealing with the balloon man. Their identities like the name mentioned before them blurred into one as they lost themselves coming into contact with the balloon man. The whistle is the curse luring them into the faraway place even death. The fourth stanza is pointing downward as if leading into hell, so that confirmed my thesis and I had data to refer to for support.

In conclusion, I took detailed notes in class over which taught me to look at the moment of life that the author is trying to present. Taking this into consideration I turned my attention to how the depiction of this man, his actions, and the militant response of the children and how unnatural it is. It makes sense that children would be drawn to interesting noises but the grossly depicted man throws the story into a sinister twist. Cummings also uses several contrasts such as spring, mud luscious and puddle wonderful world to show irony. Usually spring time has a happy connotation due to the fresh life and renewal this period brings about in nature; however when having the old crippled come and attract youth it seems to interrupt the flow of their lifestyles. Having him enter their lives in a time where the world is mud luscious is interesting as well. To me it seemed as if he gave their adolescence an unclear meaning which is going to harm them in the future. Lastly, He also enters the picture when the world is puddle-wonderful. Contrasting to the mud-luscious imagery here he wants to create a false sense of peace and enjoyment to attract the children and I believe he succeeds in taking their innocence away. They never talked throughout this whole poem because to the old man they were only seen as objects for him to play with. I enjoyed reading e.e. cummings poem in Just and look forward to gathering further research on him.