1. the city planners, margaret atwood

Cards (24)

  • 'cruising' these residential sunday streets in dry august sunlight:
    cruising = relaxed, at ease
    • this contradicts the semantic field of insanity evinced later in the poem
    irony
    • you can't cruise through this suburb, the reader will discover: it's frosty and inhospitable
  • what offends us is the sanities
    juxtaposition of semantic fields: vexation and logic
    - speaker is not unsettled by mere chaos/disorder; but rather the very qualities associated with order, reason and rationality
    this creates a sense of irony: implying the speaker sees the strict conformity and uniformity of the suburban environment as oppressive/asphyxiating
  • the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees
    stresses the suburban environment encroaches on speaker's personal freedom: frightened of the bourgeoisie
    no sense of community: town fails to foster individuality/diversity of thought
    pedantic rows/ planted sanitary trees
    plosive ps: reflect plasticisation of nature, which is supposed to be free-flowing
  • assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the
    dent in our car
    door
    assert levelness of surface
    • again, the suburb infringes on freedom of expression with forceful equality
    • too equal; perfection to a fault
    like a rebuke to the dent in our car door
    • even the smallest mistakes require correction; speaker requires correction
    • speaker and her family are at odds with the town's prevailing order
    dent... door...
    • dental d's are inhospitable
  • no shouting here, or shatter of glass;
    further emphasises the controlled, subdued atmosphere of the suburban neighbourhood
  • nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of a power mower cutting a straight swath
    rational whine
    • personification of mower evinces that it is inimical to the lifestyle it's forced into
    • however, it is fundamentally brought into alignment with its sterile environment
    straight swath:
    • almost eerily equal/symmetrical
  • shatter of glass / cutting a straight swath
    semantic field of injury
    • veiled threat: if one doesn't comply, one is punished
    • abuse/violence theme hangs in the air latently
  • splash of paint on brick (surprising as a bruise)
    pressing hard consonant sounds together in a cacophonous jingle:
    harsh, vicious sonic texture to describe bruising
    life's messy edges can be sanded away
  • display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky
    slant of avoidance is protest against 'perfect', docile, planted, sanitary nature of suburb
    leisureliness is abjured (renounced)
    town is in opposition to natural will
  • on brick surprising as a bruise
    simile: implies imperfection deserves punishment
    blemish on the house spoils its homogeneity
  • the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria
    accentuates how mania is flecked within the suburb's uniform design
  • a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil
    biblical allusion to serpent in garden of eden:
    planners attempted to manufacture an eden
    snake alludes to the power of the devil
    planners attempted eden, but enforced a hell
  • too-fixed stare of the wide windows
    perpetually watching/judging/observing/threatening
  • when the houses, capsized, will slide... into the clay seas
    capsized:
    imposing structures are revealed to be fundamentally feeble
  • the houses... will slide obliquely into the clay seas
    oblique: off-centre
    reflects the facade fading as weakness of planners' structure is revealed
    slantedness antithetical to previous emphasised straightness
  • insane faces of political conspirators... tracing the panic of suburb order
    semantic field of mania
    planners inherently unfit for their jobs
    motivated by insecurity + lust for control, NOT symbols of poise: characterised by hubris and arrogance
  • faces of political conspirators are scattered over unsurveyed territories
    ironic humour
    even in this hypothetical future, the planners still seek out development opportunities
  • tracing the panic of suburb order in a bland madness of snows
    bland' madness — oxymoron
    • bland semantic field: flat, vanillamadness semantic field: chaos, disorder
    • this stresses the futility of the planners' existence + projects
    snows:
    • plain, empty: the result of the maniacal nature of the planners
  • what does the rhythm/ rhyme scheme prove
    no rhythm or rhyme scheme
    this reflects how the planners' attempts to impose order are always superseded by the power of natural disorder
    poetic reflection of nature's characteristic, beautiful disorder + by extension, a reflection of the planners' pitiful failures
  • what does the form prove
    poem written in dissonant free verse without regular pattern (enjambment present)
    draws attention to the unpredictability of nature, in contrast with the stiflingly rigid gridded nature of the suburb:
  • what does the structure prove
    consists of 7 stanzas of varying lengths: last stanza is the shortest
    this reflects the chaotic, disjointed nature of the suburban environment the author critiques
    • eventually, this will all disintegrate into the 'clay seas' and fizzle out into nothingness
  • contextual info
    margaret atwood's father was an entomologist, which gave her a deep appreciation for nature
    poem was in response to the increase in standardised neighbourhoods throughout the 20th century
    atwood critiques these by suggesting that man-made structures are fragile and not planned thoroughly enough to withstand nature's force
  • summary of poem
    gridded, orderly blueprints of the town are designed by a sinister cabal of planners

    the built environment is superficially perfect, but inimical to warmth and community feeling

    towards the end, a time-skip shifts the reader forward to an apocalyptic future where the ice age returns — yet the planners still pursue their mad quest for control
  • example summary quotes
    'panic of suburb order'/ 'houses in pedantic rows' / 'the planted sanitary trees'/ 'slant of avoidance