“white bear” BY JOY HARJO
Your critique must be between 400-600 words. Be sure to double space and to include an MLA heading (LB 715, left corner), Page numbers (LB 715, right corners), a title (LB 715, top middle of first square) and you are required to include a Work Cited page (LB 742). Use LB page 704, # 62, to accurately cite your journal article on the WC page. EXAMPLE BELOW
A Fishy Reflection
In the article by Donna Richardson reviewing Plath’s “Mirror,” it makes bold statements, and openly deviates from popular beliefs about the story. From determining the mirror’s objectivity, to the importance of the “terrible fish” (Plath 743), Richardson makes contentions that oppose many popularized interpretations of the famous poem.
Objectivity of the mirror is one of the two main talking points of Richardson’s critique of “Mirrors.” She first refutes the belief that the mirror is transformative, and can take on shapes. Many believe this is due to the mirror being a vertical, normal mirror in the first stanza, and being a reflective lake in the second. However, she believes that this is just not the case. The mirror is a metaphor; it represents the reflection that appears to the eye of the beholder, ever-changing in the landscape of our own mind. We change the way we view ourselves, just as the mirror “adjusts to the viewer” (Richardson 194).
The second main talking point is the importance of the “terrible fish” that is mentioned at the end of the poem (Plath 743). Many believe that this “terrible fish” is a metaphor to the “unavoidable horrors of growing old” (Richardson 194). A fish is scaly, just as an old person’s grotesque skin might be. The author believes that due to this easy comparison, the true meaning of the “terrible fish” is often misconstrued and the true conclusion of the story is simply never drawn.
In “Mirror,” the true meaning of the “terrible fish” is this: the viewer has “fished” for her own self-worth in the metaphorical lake (the mirror), determining how she looks on the outside. Now, because of that that she has only found a terrible truth. As we grow older our physical traits are bound to diminish; however, if we find our self-worth within our spirit, our faith, and ourselveswe will realize something. These things will never diminish. They will only grow, and become more refined and beautiful. It is this dichotomy that, I believe, the author of “Mirror” is trying to convey. The mirror may have “an old woman/ [that] rises toward her day after day like a terrible fish” (Plath 743), but only if we drown ourselves in the worth of our physical image rather than basking in the glory of our internal image. Then, and only then, will we find our true selves.