Experience, Analysis, and Extension in "Bored" by Margaret Atwood

9/19/2018

Read the poem "Bored" by Margaret Atwood and then discuss your experience of it, your analysis of it, and how you might extend your analysis beyond the story. Please keep in mind that these are not entirely separate steps. Simply go through the steps as you compose your response.
Primary Blog Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 300-350 words, minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the name you were assigned in class as your nom de plume and be sure to add word count. Due by 11:59pm Thursday night 9-20-2018!

Champ forever

9/19/2018 02:14:11 pm

After reading this poem it was like it triggered my old memories of what I used to do and I could feel this boredom. The poet includes the things which he experienced on water then he talks about the things he experienced on land and in the end he talks about animals. The last lines tell us about the things which animals do and they do it everyday not even refusing once or showing any signs of boredom he thinks that maybe they are used to it and they find it interesting. The poet uses word hard in the second stanza where he is trying to tell that maybe it's something that he doesn't yet know that's why he finds boredom in it. The poet is actually talking about his old memories where he experienced a great amount of boredom. He talks about the time when he was holding the log while other person was measuring it and processing it for the mill or that time when he used to pound stakes into the ground for rows and rows of lettuces and beets as the poem progressed so did the poet's boredom in second stanza he talks about the nature that how they repeat that process again and again like those sedimentary rocks or maybe production of plants or those animals who survive by picking grains or digging tunnels then he thinks that maybe it's hard or that I am finding excuses to get away from it or boredom is one of his excuses. Then he talks about that I only remember boredom in it but there was hapiness or maybe it was for the other's who enjoyed those moments. In our lives there are some things that we get bored of we don't wanna even remember them we just want to stay away from them but the problem is they keep on coming in our lives. There some things which others see it as hapiness one of the good .emories of their lives but we just see them as our worst memories but the thing is they are not actually the worst memories we may have enjoyed but we didn't want to because we were too busy using boredom as an excuse to stay away from that activity.

Champ forever

9/19/2018 02:15:15 pm

Word count: 379

V.Steele

9/20/2018 06:49:41 pm

In “Bored” by Margaret Atwood, the women that is the center of the poem describes living a life that is dominated by someone else's choices. It says that she is “holding the string while he measured.” She describes returning to her monotonous lifestyle due to his choices and this provides her with no excitement. She could possibly feel powerless to his authority and this causes her to have no personal direction. In the poem she details her experiences using the word myopia, meaning nearsightedness which emphasizes the idea that she only knows this experience of boredom and can't see her life in any other way. Although it may be boring it is her “rhythm.” Later in the poem Margaret uses the homophone whorled to emphasize her lack of worldly experiences. She talks about the “whorled texture of his square finger, earth under the nail.” Margaret used the word whorled to describe that she was looking at the swirling patterns on his thumb but it also emphasizes the world and “earth” she never got to explore due to her monotonous routine. The earth was described as being underneath his fingernail which further pushes the idea that he has control and while she could go out to explore the world, he is the primary authorizer of her actions. The poem however, ends with a twist of content. Although bored, she feels content and couldn't see her life in any other way. She may not be completely happy but she realizes she may be happier not knowing what else the world had to offer. Just like the “dogs” are content with digging holes in the ground she is content with living in routine. Although it crosses her mind that she is bored and may prefer excitement, the idea of that could be intimidating.

Name

9/20/2018 07:16:13 pm

The poem seems to go over the complex experience of boredom. The poet goes over the details and the flow of one's mind as they sit still completely bored. The poem speaks of the feeling of being unentertained by your surroundings and the dullness of doing mondain tasks. But then at the end of the poem it says “perhaps though boredom is happier. It is for dogs or groundhogs”, this line questions the speakers internal feelings that life should be more than repeating the same tasks by asking if life is simply more enjoyable if you only focus on the few things at hand. Should people be more appreciative of the “boring” life they have just as an animal or should they strive for more? This conflict is expressed in the last few lines of the poems “Now I wouldn’t be bored. Now I would know too much. Now I would know”
The poet speaks on how it “wasn’t even boredom” but staring hard. It was “myopia,” or nearsightedness. She was focused intently on her close surroundings. Over all the speaker isn’t bored as much as she is stuck, in the same situation over and over again. Forced to repeat whatever task she has in front of her and the poem basically shouts that the biggest regret in life may be not living life to the fullest. This is because a person may remember is not a human moment, but a mindless activity wherein all thy wanted to do was get out there or leave that place. The final three lines including "Now I would know" signal Atwood's appreciation for the brevity of life.

Pen

9/20/2018 07:52:41 pm

The poem “Bored” by Margaret Atwood appears to be an account from the author or the story of another woman whose life was ultimately revolved around someone else’s actions and decisions. At the start of the poem, Atwood lists the dull activities she was required to do and juxtaposed it to the action of the other person (“he”). While going through this list, the author mentions how the man “drove, steered, paddled”. This can reveal how the woman in this poem feels about the lack of control she has over her own direction in life. The other person is in charge of what direction they go in and in what they do. Because she doesn’t have access to the “prow, stern, [or] wheel” like the man does, she is mindless to the options given to her. But, it can also represent how she is constantly being guided or has no sense of independence and is therefore dependent on this other person. There appears to be some resentment towards this character who consistently has authority over the course of her life, but this changes as we approach the second half of the poem. Instead of resentment over the boring labor she endured, the author seems to reminisce in the memories in a regretful or mournful way; this can be shown through the question of “why do I remember it as sunnier all the time then, although it more often rained, and more birdsong?”. While it could also describe the weather and surroundings, it can also reveal the feelings of the author from the past and now. Sunshine and sunlight usually symbolizes happiness, while rain symbolizes sadness. Looking back at her time she spent with this person, she views it as positive when in the moment when it occurred, it wasn’t. People often look towards the past for happiness and regret when they didn’t appreciate it at the time. This poem as a whole can reveal the significance of living in the moment and not taking anything for granted.

Word Count: 337

tucker

9/20/2018 09:58:35 pm

In Margaret Atwood’s poem, BORED, the speaker depicts an experience full of stultification and submission. It can be seen that the speaker lacks power over her own life through the way that she explains how a man controls everything that happens to her. “Holding the log / while he sawed it. Holding / the string while he measured …” (Atwood 2-4). The speaker seems to always remain still while “he” carries out the action and keeps busy. She is bored, she has nothing to do but be directed to do pointless things like sitting in the car or boat, and pay attention to detail. It is clear that the speaker is paying attention to detail when she mentions “myopia” (Atwood 14). Myopia is also known as nearsightedness, which relates to the way that because she has nothing better to do, she fixates on small details. One of the many things that this poem conveys is that men tend to have a lot of control over women and what they do. Typically, most parts of the world have a patriarchal system -- even today in 2018, women are not free to be women. Men try to control our thoughts, bodies, and even our salaries. For example, men are paid more than women -- for every dollar that a man makes, a woman makes about 80 cents. Similar to holding the log while the man saws it, the woman can put in as much work or effort as she wants but at the end of the day, the man decides what she is compensated for it. At the end of the poem, the speaker expresses that if she was no longer “bored”, she would learn something, or “know too much.” It appears that if one is bored, they will be happier -- similar to the saying “ignorance is bliss” -- because once they learn, they will know of all the wrong that is done by men.

tucker

9/20/2018 09:59:42 pm

word count: 318

E.Dickinson

9/20/2018 09:58:49 pm

Margaret Atwood's poem Bored is a poem about a young woman who is secluded from the world. She tells readers about how her days are spent helping a mysterious man known only as "he," leaving us to determine what he means to her on our own. I chose to see him as a father figure. He keeps her with him and has her help him with whatever work he's doing. Atwood writes "Holding the string while he measured..." This tells us that there is a sort of symbiotic relationship between the two- she helps him and keeps him company, and he provides for her. This may not be because he wants to control her, but because he wants to protect her. This could also be because he is lonely. The poem isn't particularly lengthy but there doesn't seem to be anyone else in this man's life besides the focus of the poem, so perhaps the man doesn't want to let go of her because he doesn't want to be alone. Still, the girl isn't happy and resorts to busying herself with "The worn gunwales, the intricate twill of the seat cover." Her time with this man has greatly heightened her sense of her surroundings, which is a benefit to her boredom. Though housework and weeds can only amuse a child for so long and she obviously wants to break away from the constantly mundane routine of her life as Atwood explains when she writes "The boring rhythm of doing things over and over..." But, as all children, there is that voice at the back of her head filled with doubts and various "what ifs?" Atwood ends the poem by saying "Perhaps though boredom is happier...I would know too much." Although she wants to get out and be free, she seems to choose blissful ignorance over the reality of how ugly the world truly is outside of the safe haven of her home.

Word count: 322

September

9/20/2018 10:36:50 pm

In Margaret Atwood’s poem, “Bored,” Atwood describes how a person is watching and helping a guy work. When I first read this poem, I understood it as Atwood was reminiscing on a time when she went to work with her father. Her father must have been a landscaper or worked in a shipyard. She would perform minimalistic jobs, jobs a child could perform. SHe would hold the string, weed, and care for the garden. She would also watch her father while he was working, as a child would who admires her father. Because of this admiration, she would pay attention to the small details. Some of the small details she noticed was the “darkish and then graying bristles on the back of” her father’s neck. This reveals that the man she was shadowing was older just like a father is older than his child. She makes comments about the small detail, most likely details she noticed while trying to fight boredom. She then concludes her poem by saying how she remembers the days happier than they were in reality and the she now knows. SHe now knows what? That is the question that is trivial in analyzing this poem. On the obvious side, you could say she now knows how to fight boredom, but she has learned something even more trivial. She has learned how trivial the small detail is. Through the use of “minutiae,” Atwood is able to reveal a lot about the characters in her poem. From the small details, it can be inferred that the man she is shadowing in the poem, whether her father or not, was a hard working, blue-collar worker. This is evident from the labor intensive jobs he preformed; from sawing and measuring wood to the steering of boats. This is also evident from the way Atwood describes his finger, “the world texture of his square finger, earth under the nail,” is how she described his finger. This description of detail paints a picture of a dirty, calloused finger, the finger that belongs to a stereotypical blue-collared worker, like a farmer or a mechanic. From the details, you can also see that this man loved nature and so does the narrator because she describes how he points to the nature, small details he notices, and she describes the small details she sees. Through this poem, Atwood makes it clear that details are the key.

Word Count: 401 (Sorry)

Phantom

9/20/2018 11:59:16 pm

The Poem "Bored" has a particularly nostalgic tone to it. The person reminisces through memories of simple tasks they've done with their partner like cutting up wood and the small habits the other person would do. The way the person is regretfully reflecting upon their experience with this other person.
The poem feels like a long list of endless menial tasks and it emphasizes the repetitiveness and normality of those scenarios. The person shows no hesitation in stating how bored they felt with phrases like "I then (bored) weeded. Or sat in the back of that car, or sat still in the boats, sat, sat, while at the prow, stern, wheel he drove, steered paddled." What stood out the most was the lack of conjunctions and the asyndeton. It helped bring the repeating words closer which, in turn, made the words seem more abundant. There are even more moments where the person is very direct by saying " the boring rhythm over and over" and "such mutinae". The distain is clear. At that moment, they would have loved to be out of the situation because it wasn't interesting.
Then the switch in mood appeared at "Why do I remember it as sunnier all the time then, although it more often rained, and more birdsong?" This sentence made the heaviest impact on the switch in tone. After the long explanation of how this person really hated being in that place doing work, the conflict being introduced sets a tone of regret. The rain they mention is recognition for how miserable they felt as rain is often associated with sadness, but "I remember it as sunnier all the time" is also recognition of how much the memories meant to them. It wasn't just sunny, because they weren't completely happy about their past, but the person did have a change of heart of what that place meant to them. "Perhaps though boredom is happier." When they were bored they didn't recognize the small things they enjoyed. The moments when "It wasn't even boredom, it was looking" or when "Sometimes he would whilst, Sometimes I would." are small parts of the past that were probably more enjoyable than this person realize. Maybe the work wasn't worth it, but the time spent with the other person made it worth it.

Word Count: 384.

Edgar Wright

9/23/2018 12:00:53 pm

Reading Bored, by Margaret Atwood, reminded me of all the times i was stuck following my parents as a child. I wasn't a stable kid, and my mom was overprotective, so I was stuck having to go everywhere with her and just sit in the car or walk around. The first part of Boredom depicts the incredibly specific details one looks at when nothing is really happening. You sit there or do some repetitive tasks, your mind drifting off somewhere else. I would look for ways to entertain myself, similar to how the poet describes how, “it wasnt even boredom, it was looking, looking hard and up close at the small details.” (Atwood) I experienced that feeling countless times as a child. While reading Atwoods interpretation of it, I vividly imagined hundreds of scenarios. However, I never recall these memories as bad ones. I don't remember what it was that made it boring. They have become nostalgic anecdotes of my childhood. Atwood realizes this as well. “Why do I remember it as sunnier all the time then, although it more often rained, and more birdsong?” I feel like this poem is trying to tell how Boredom is just an experience of everyday life, and could sometimes even be enjoyable. Even though you're bored, there's nothing bad happening at the moment. Everything is fine and tranquil. The poem ends with, “Now I would know too much. Now I would Know.” (Atwood) being bored is just a result of having nothing to do. Nothing bad or good is happening, there is no rush to do anything. Even though you seek thrill, life is good when you're bored. This is why pets like Dogs are so happy. They have nothing to do and just sit around, waiting for any slight hint of excitement. There is no worse, yet better feeling than being bored.

Word Count: 310

Phantom

9/24/2018 12:14:35 am

The Passage “Snow” is a great example of how negativity can affect our mindset of something so pure. “Snow” used war to twist the concept of snow into a more dark and gloomy thought.
When the passage starts, Alivarez sets off with the setting dictating it as a simplex and innocent religious area. It provided a greater impact when the idea of World War II was introduced. “Soon I learned enough English to understand that holocaust was in the air,” It was a child just getting used to their surroundings, innocent. Then a horrific feeling was felt when it was war they were being introduced to. The transitions turn more toward the war and it's prominence. The “"Russian Missiles” and “air-raid drills” made the setting uncomfortable and dangerous.
All of this was set for the final two paragraphs. The inching into winter was a clever addition which both gave it the lonely, hopeless feeling and the logical snow. “November, December” was moving slowly into the colder part of the winter season. It drew out suspense and held the mindset of war from the previous paragraphs within. When the little girl first saw the snow, it was an alarm. All the build up made this moment absolutely terrifying. When it is revealed as snow, there is great relief. The realization there are some beautiful things in this world.
When war and fighting was taught in the school, it replaced fun and light feelings. The education focused on negativity and subjects that would male children fear. Although it is for the safety of children, Alvarez might have wanted people to reflect on how war can affect mindsets. There are positive things that should be pointed out to balance the negatives. Because if worry overcomes spirits, then that is all spirits will feel.

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