An Analysis of Metaphors in "Vacation" by Rupi Kaur

            Literature has a significant influence on many aspects of human life. Dubey (2013) agrees that issues and phenomena that occur in the society are reflected through literary works in various forms. In the past, people went to libraries or bookstores to access literary works such as novels, short stories, poetry, etc. Nowadays, thanks to the rapid development of the internet and technology, people can easily access any kind of literary works using their computers, tablets, or smartphones. This digital revolution, however, affects the way authors, poets and linguists share their works. One of which is Rupi Kaur, a well-known insta-poet who consistently shares her works on social media, especially Instagram. She is acknowledged for her writing styles which include lots of rhymes, repetition and figurative languages, specifically metaphor, a writing technique that indirectly compares two things by giving the thing a name that belongs to something entirely different but has the same qualities (Aristotle, n.d., as cited in Zhang & Hu, 2009). In one of her outstanding poems untitled Vacation, Rupi Kaur uses many metaphors to deliver the intention of the poem implicitly in a deep, elegant way.

            The first metaphor that the writer could find is when the character opens the poem by saying “did you think i was a city / big enough for a weekend getaway”(1-2), she starts comparing herself to a city which is commonly visited by a lot of people who take a short break from their daily activities. This sentence illustrates that the character intended to convey that she is not someone to run to when one’s got bored with their life, she is not a place to escape to when one’s run away from something. Moreover, in the tenth line, the character says “i am not street meat i am homemade jam”, to contrast herself to street meat, which is a slang for prostitutes, who can easily be found roaming on the streets and alleys; also to emphasize that she has the same characteristics as a homemade jam which is more difficult to lay your hands on and requires a lot of processes.

Another example of metaphor can be seen when the character says “i am not the whiskey you want / i am the water you need”(20-21) as an “analogy”. The word “whiskey”(20) symbolizes one’s desire for something that one does not need, meanwhile “the water”(21) symbolizes something so essential but sometimes forgotten. By using these analogies, the character tries to declare that she is not a luxury but a necessity; she is not what you wanted but what you need. After all of these examples of metaphors, it can be concluded that the use of metaphor makes the language of a poem more appealing, make a statement less offensive and more abstract (Torgny, 1997).

In conclusion, the use of metaphors in Vacation by Rupi Kaur makes the expressions, feelings, and opinions can be conveyed subtly yet bold. Instead of telling the intended meaning literally, which is often considered impolite and might cause controversy, the character uses metaphors to avoid saying something straight forward. Even though metaphors will obviously take longer to process, it can not be denied that the use of metaphors will cause a deeper and more remarkable effect for the reader.

REFERENCES

Dubey, A. (2013). Literature and Society. Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 9(6). Retrieved September 28, 2019, from http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol9-issue6/O0968485.pdf?id=6191

Hu, J., & Zhang, F. (2009). A Study of Metaphor and its Application in Language Learning and Teaching. International Education Studies, 2(2). Retrieved September 28, 2019, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1065692.pdf

Torgny, O. (1997). Metaphor - a working concept. Contextual Design - Design in Context. Stockholm, Sweden. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from  https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/43dc/c3ab2e657592e72820263fd0d95d24d90510.pdf

A Literary Appreciation of "Imagine" Song by John Lennon

Imagine by John Lennon is a free verse poem about the concept of an ideal world that the speaker desires. This poem was written in March 1971 during the Vietnam War as a part of the anti-war movement. The word “imagine” is chosen as a title because the speaker knows that his/ her vision is a form of imagination, almost impossible to visualize and therefore, “you” in line 13 which refers to the reader or the one the speaker is talking to might disagree with the speaker’s vision and “may say [the speaker] is a dreamer.”

In the first stanza, the speaker opens the poem with controversial phrases “[i]magine there’s no heaven” and “[n]o hell below us” to bring up the issue that the existence of “heaven” and “hell” as an afterlife world motivates people to do anything “good” in their perception in order to get to heaven; without knowing that this urge is secretly used by some parties to gain benefit for their own interests. The speaker is trying to say if “there [are] no countries”, there would be no boundaries to divide people into certain groups, nothing to use as a justification to kill another human being or to die for a territory which in fact; can be shared equally. If there is “[n]o religion”, there would be nothing to war about, to separate people from one another or to hate each other for. By saying “[i]magine no possession”, the speaker indicates how possession caused inequality between the haves and have nots, how the world hunger can easily be ended if people are willing to put aside possession and sharing the world in peace.

It cannot be denied that every war occurs as a result of the seizure for territory, power, religion, and possession. Even though the speaker’s vision seems like a perfect solution to end all wars, it is preposterous to eliminate all beliefs, all boundaries, all differences and all concepts of thought which currently exist to simply reset the world for a new chapter. To achieve the speaker’s ideal world, each and every people in the world needs to think, act and treat others as one, which logically cannot be done instantly. An ideal world is a world where diversity exists and unites people, a world where there is no hunger, greed, envy and lies, a world where people feel safe, a world without worries and tears, a world in which people could express their feelings freely without getting hated for. The ideal world would only take place if people start caring, start to end all wars, save our nature, treat others equally, be kind, live for today and share the world in peace.

Male Domination in "The Yellow Wall Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

            The Yellow Wall Paper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story about a woman who suffers from a nervous depression after giving birth to her son and being forced to have a perfect rest by her husband, John, in a huge old mansion during the summer. The woman, whose name is unstated, is not allowed to ‘work’ because her husband, a physician of high standing, thinks that tonics, exercise, air and a lot of sleep will make her get well soon. This story somehow illustrates that women have a little to no control over their own life. The husband, on the other hand, always in control about everything; even though it is as trivial as a choice of room. The woman wants one downstairs with ‘‘roses all over the windows’’, but her husband would not hear of it and choose the nursery at the top of the house instead. ‘‘[H]e... hardly lets [his wife] stir without special direction.’’  Afterward, the woman hints her dislikeness of the yellow wallpaper by saying,’’I never saw a worse paper in my life’’ and asks her husband to re-paper the room or let her go downstairs. John with all his sweet talk calls his wife ’’a blessed little goose, and [says] he would go down cellar if [he] wished’’ but yet, he still does not re-paper the room nor let her move downstairs. These events represent how dominant John’s opinions over his wife's will, he always convinces his wife that he does it for her own good, because ‘‘he is so wise’’ and ‘‘he loves [her] very dearly.’’ When in fact, he does not let his wife choose the room downstairs because there is ‘‘no near room for him’’ to work in.

The main character of this story, the woman, represent the protagonist character. Ever since the story starts, the woman wants to ‘‘work’’. She believes that ‘‘congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good.’’ and ‘‘it would relieve the press of ideas and rest [her]’’, but her husband, as the antagonist, forbid her to do so. He wants her to ‘‘have perfect rest’’ and ‘‘sleep all [she] can’’ until she is well again. This prohibition makes her ‘‘work’’ secretly, she only writes when John is away, and ‘‘it does exhaust [her] a good deal— having to be so sly about it.’’ She hates to write in secret. It makes her feel tired easily and ‘‘[i]t is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about [her] work.’’

The woman then starts to lose her strength. She lies down a lot in her room but does not sleep. She keeps staring at the yellow wallpaper, trying to observe its patterns, colors, smells and everything. Soon, she gets obsessed with the yellow wallpaper because she spends too much time lying on the bed, with nothing to do but staring at the wallpaper. She examines how the patterns look like ‘‘strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths’’ before starts to fancy that there is ‘‘a woman stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern.’’ She starts to imagine something that is more likely a reflection of what she feels in that room; trapped. As she starts to lose the line between fantasy and reality, on the last day of her stay in the mansion, she knows that this is the day where she finally will be free! ‘‘[She peels] off all the paper [she] could reach standing on the floor’’ and tells her husband that ‘‘‘[she has] got out at last,... in spite of [her husband] and [her husband's sister]! And [she has] pulled off most of the paper, so [they] can't put [her] back!’’’

The issue of male domination in a relationship can be seen in the passage by how the wife, as a narrator, repeatedly saying ‘‘John says’’ or ‘‘He said’’ in every other possible word. The husband’s perspective and opinion matter more than his wife’s wishes, although the woman already has depression, her husband still forced his will and made his wife obey his wishes. This condition caused the woman’s depression got worse and made her lose her sanity.

Ketika Seisi Jagat Raya Bercanda

Dear Tuan yang membingungkan, yang pernah coba kulupakan namun ternyata tak benar-benar hilang; yang bertahun-tahun kukagumi dan pernah kuikhlaskan, tapi pada akhirnya tetap kembali jadi pujaan.

***

Aku tak pernah benar-benar mengenalnya

Siluet tubuhnya adalah satu-satunya hal yang bisa kurindukan

Tatapan matanya dari balik kacamata hitam bergaris putih di tangkainya;

memang tak pernah ditujukan untukku

Namanya hanya bisa kudengar dari desas-desus disekitarku,

tapi apalah arti sebuah nama jika bahkan hatiku sudah menjadi miliknya.

***

Ini kisah yang saking basinya, sudah lama ingin kulupakan. Kisah yang kubiarkan berlumut dalam draft karena absennya plot twist yang membuat alurnya sedatar lautan tanpa ombak. Aku tak pernah menginginkan ini, menjadi seorang pengagum rahasia tak pernah ada dalam daftar cita-citaku di masa depan. Aku juga tak mau berperan dalam kisah cinta bertepuk sebelah tangan yang tragis. Kisah yang tak akan berlanjut kemana-mana karena sudah berakhir di awal. Kisah yang memiliki epilog pada prolognya. Aku sempat mengira kalau perasaan ini tak akan bertahan lama, tapi di tahun ketujuh, ketika aku mendengar namamu disandingkan dengan namaku, ada gejolak yang membuatku mendadak mual, terlalu bahagia, dan membuat dadaku sesak saking cepatnya jantungku berdetak.

Barusan memang aku bilang epilog, Tuan, tapi kamu tahu sendiri, kan? Semesta sering keterlaluan kalau bercanda. Jadi di sinilah aku sekarang, melanjutkan draft usang dengan plot twist yang kukira tak akan pernah datang.

***

This is me praying that, this was the very first page not where the story line ends. My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again. These are the words I held back, as I was leaving too soon, I was enchanted to meet you!

(Enchanted, Taylor Swift)

***

Ini bukan seperti yang pernah kubayangkan. Tak ada jabatan tangan, tak ada perkenalan formal yang sempat kukira akan terjadi. Aku tak mendengarmu menyebutkan namamu. Kita bertingkah seakan sudah saling mengenal, duduk bersebelahan, dan mulai saling bertukar kalimat. Aku menikmati suara bassmu yang mendadak memenuhi ruang dengarku, sekaligus mencuri-curi kesempatan untuk mengabadikan wajahmu dari jarak yang begitu dekat. Sesekali lengan kita bersentuhan, wangi parfummu menguar membuatku bersusah payah menahan diri untuk berhenti mengendusmu.

Pandangan matamu yang akhirnya mengakui kehadiranku.

Senyuman manismu yang akhirnya ditujukan padaku.

Suara bassmu yang akhirnya kamu ucapkan untukku.

Semuanya masih terasa seperti mimpi.

Aku pernah percaya bahwa ini mustahil, tapi di sinilah kita sekarang. Kamu membaca tulisan ini dengan kacamata barumu, dan aku berharap aku masih bisa berkilah soal siapa yang ada dalam tulisan ini...

Dari aku,

yang tak lagi kasat mata

Jakarta, 12 April 2015

Mon Premier Amour

Hai.

Bonjour.

Salam dariku, wanita yang selalu kehilangan keberanian untuk menyapamu dalam nyata.

Kuucapkan selamat pagi, selamat siang, selamat sore, atau mungkin selamat malam? Aku tidak tahu kapan kamu akan berkesempatan membaca tulisan ini. Entah kalimat macam apa yang harus kupilih untuk memulainya, setidaknya, kuharap sapaan singkat itu mampu membuatmu mengernyitkan dahi, memandangi layar smartphone-mu dengan pandangan antusias dan senyum merekah, seperti biasanya...

Ijinkan aku memperkenalkan diri, Tuan. Namaku Dhea, bukan nama yang terlalu asing jika kamu pernah sedikit saja memperhatikan segelintir orang disekitarmu menyebutkannya. Aku... bisa dibilang pengagum rahasiamu. Wanita yang gemar mencuri-curi pandang ke arahmu dengan getar-getar aneh yang seenaknya menyusup ke dalam hati, yang kata kebanyakan orang— cinta.

Semua terpatri begitu jelas dalam ingatanku... suatu hari di penghujung tahun dua ribu delapan, ketika hujan mengenalkan aku pada aroma petrichor, kita bertemu. Senyummu menyapa aku yang mendadak melongo memandangi wajah asing itu, sementara kamu sibuk berlalu, melewatiku dengan gagah tanpa tahu bahwa kamu baru saja mengguncangkan duniaku! Tepat lima tahun lalu, umurku masih sebelas, masih terlalu bau kencur untuk sekadar mengatakan bahwa aku telah terpesona; terlebih jatuh cinta. Saat itu, aku bahkan tidak tahu siapa namamu, berapa umurmu atau apapun latar belakangmu. Aku cuma terpana, menatapi kepergianmu dengan rasa penasaran yang semakin membuncah dalam dada. Aku harus segera mengenalmu! Sebulan... dua bulan... butuh waktu begitu lama untuk mengetahui bahwa usia kita hanya terpaut beberapa tahun; tak sampai sewindu. Dengan titel mahasiswa di sebuah Universitas Swasta ternama, sosok berkacamata itu tak pernah bisa luput mengundang perhatianku. Gerak-gerikmu yang khas, gaya bicaramu yang unik dan deretan gigi putih yang tampak begitu manis saat tersenyum. Akupun ikut tersenyum, mengagumi kharismamu...

Sayangnya cinta memang tak melulu soal tawa. Di tahun berikutnya, jarak membentang seolah menghadang aku untuk mengagumimu, tapi bukan cinta namanya kalau tak bisa membuatmu tegar. Aku masih tetap mengagumimu dari kejauhan yang bahkan lebih jauh lagi. Akun social media-mu adalah satu-satunya tempat aku melepas rindu, rindu yang semakin berkarat... rindu yang sukarela berkarat agar yang dirindukan semakin sukses di kejauhan.

Lima tahun berlalu sekelebat mata. Kini, aku sudah tumbuh menjadi sosok yang jauh lebih dewasa. Aku bukan lagi bocah ingusan yang percaya bahwa takdir akan menyatukan kita, aku bukan lagi bocah naif yang berharap kisahku akan berakhir dengan "bahagia selamanya", aku mulai menyadari bahwa yang kudambakan selama lima tahun belakangan ini hanyalah khayalan yang harus kuikhlaskan untuk tidak terjadi. Sudah setengah dasawarsa, Tuan. Aku berusaha menyembunyikan segalanya dari dunia, menutup rahasia ini rapat-rapat dan memendam sedalam-dalamnya. Aku pernah percaya bahwa cinta pada pandangan pertama akan berakhir secepat cinta itu berawal, tapi di sinilah aku sekarang... lima tahun kemudian, setelah aku jatuh cinta dan patah hati untuk entah kali keberapa, namun setiap aku mendengar namamu disebut, hatiku mencelus. Rasa yang (seharusnya) sudah kadaluarsa itu kembali bangkit dan merajai hatiku. Setiap kali aku melihat sosokmu... aku kembali jatuh cinta, dan kamu tak tahu, kan, betapa konyolnya jatuh cinta berkali-kali pada orang yang sama?

Sekarang, tepat seribu delapan ratus dua puluh lima hari dari hari bersejarah itu, tempat penuh kenangan ini kembali menyatukan kita dengan khayalan yang tak kunjung jadi kenyataan.

Aku masih tak kasat mata di hadapanmu, dan entah kapan hal itu akan berubah.

Dari pengagum rahasiamu,

yang ingin berhenti merahasiakannya.

Jakarta, 12 Desember 2013.