{"id":276,"date":"2021-02-18T13:23:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T18:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/?p=276"},"modified":"2021-02-18T13:23:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T18:23:04","slug":"helen-and-the-question-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/2021\/02\/18\/helen-and-the-question-of-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen and The Question of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Number 46 of Walt Whitman\u2019s <\/span>Song of Myself <\/span><\/i>helps us identify and understand Helen from Judy Grahn\u2019s <\/span>The Work Of A Common Woman<\/span><\/i>. Together, they reveal the sacrifices that Helen has made in order to live the life of a successful woman. Most importantly, 46 helps us understand why those sacrifices leave her dissatisfied in the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The seventh stanza of #46 in Walt Whitman\u2019s <\/span>Song of Myself <\/span><\/i>contemplates the meaning of success and fulfillment in life. The speaker questions their spirit:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201c… When we become the enfolders of the those\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0orbs and the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0shall we be filled and satisfied then?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To which the spirit replied: \u201cNo, we level that lift to pass and continue beyond.\u201d In these passages, the speaker questions if striving to be the best and desiring to have the most knowledge will give our life satisfaction. With the word \u201cthen\u201d the speaker questions if <\/span>only<\/span><\/i> with greatness will we feel fulfillment in life. The spirit answers the speaker by denying these assumptions – they advise that we don\u2019t need to have everything in this life, that it is impossible to have \u201cknowledge of every thing\u201d so we \u201cwe level\u201d and \u201ccontinue beyond.\u201d It suggests a message to be satisfied with what you have and implies fulfillment of one\u2019s life is not defined by how much you have accomplished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Using Whitman\u2019s question of fulfillment and success, we are able to better understand one of Grahn\u2019s common women, Helen. Helen defines herself as a woman who has found success in her occupation, a \u201cboss\u201d who \u201c[wears] trim suits and spiked heels.\u201d She is a woman of authority, \u201cpitting the men against each other \/ and getting the women fired.\u201d In her position, she holds authority over both men and women – revealing the power that her position allows her to have. If success were defined by society, Helen lives a successful life and she believes she does. However, as the poem makes explicit, \u201c she doesn\u2019t realize yet, that she\u2019s missed success, also.\u201d The word \u201cyet\u201d greatly implies that Helen has defined success as becoming one of the greatest and accomplishing more than any other woman has. The word \u201cmissed\u201d reveals to us that this is not how we should define success. As Whitman outlines, greatness and accomplishments do not guarantee success in living life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The seventh stanza of Whitman\u2019s 46 reveals to us that fulfillment and satisfaction in life cannot be found by measuring your accomplishments or by continually striving to be the best. Helen, to be in her position, has sacrificed parts of herself. She becomes \u201cstiff\u201d as she \u201ctries to make it in a male form.\u201d This line reveals to us that she feels, in order to be successful, she must act as men do in society. That in order to be successful in this male-dominated society, she cannot be herself. She \u201c[wears] trim suits\u201d and says \u201c\u2018bust\u2019 instead of breasts\u201d just as men do. Most unfortunate of all, in her successful life, \u201cshe misses love and trust\u201d and in her \u201cgrief\u201d she acts in \u201cfits of fury.\u201d These lines reveal that she is not satisfied with the life that she has chosen to live, that she is unhappy in her successful life. Just as the spirit of Whitman\u2019s 46 tell us, satisfaction is not defined by our successes. By living a life where she continually sacrifices parts of herself for the promise of success, she unknowingly chooses a life that is not full or satisfactory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Number 46 of Walt Whitman\u2019s Song of Myself helps us identify and understand Helen from Judy Grahn\u2019s The Work Of A Common Woman. Together, they reveal the sacrifices that Helen has made in order to live the life of a successful woman. Most importantly, 46 helps us understand why those sacrifices leave … Continue reading Helen and The Question of Success<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4640,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}