Singapore 1990s, Singapore Now
While the poem is titled “Singapore” I didn’t think it played as much significance as the situation, watching a woman scrub toilets and live a life modest compared to our own. Upon seeing her, “a darkness was ripped from my [her] eyes.” She had an epiphany. While she was disgusted at first and overcome with judgment, she overcame that to see the beauty and dignity that this woman embodies. “Everybody needs a job.”
The subtle smile exchanged between the two women who couldn’t be more different is the situation that makes Oliver’s epiphany possible. Singapore could be substituted for any other city because even in America, there are still people scrubbing toilets and washing ashtrays. By no means is the woman’s job unique to Singapore. Though, at the time when the poem was written, Singapore did represent a destitute third-world country which could expand the poem’s meaning from acceptance between two people to acceptance between two cultures.
pg.991
sestina: six words
-
Six Words
by Lloyd Schwartz
yes
no
maybe
sometimes
always
never
Never?
Yes.
Always?
No.
Sometimes?
Maybe—
maybe
never
sometimes.
Yes—
no
always:
always
...
15 years ago
5 comments:
I also think that there is a significance that the poem is about two women. We like to think that stereotypes usually occur between different genders. However, there is an upper class woman judging a lower class woman. I do believe, though, that the reason this epitome that Charlie touched is able to occur is because they are both woman. They each have a basic understanding of what life as a woman is, and therefore can make a deeper connection; one deeper than social class.
I aggree with Lauren in regards to the setting of the poem, and its signifigance in being insignifigant. The message of understanding is universal between two people, let alone two women with the same mindest, yet in different situations.
I actually thought that the choice of setting (Singapore) was pretty clever overall. Although this sort of connection could happen anywhere, Singapore is one of the asian cities that contain a lot of illicit activities, so for her to be at the airport, and realize, in the midst of everything, the specific revelation about the other woman's beauty and life, emphasizes its significance. That's what i took it as.
I thought the location of Singapore was relevant not because of whats in it literally but because it is a foreign place full of the unknown. This setting better allows the woman in the poem to have her epiphany because she is already in a foreign place.
I agree and disagree that the setting of Singapore is significant. I think, like Charlie and others said, that this kind of meeting could occur anywhere and still have the same ramifications. On the other hand, I think that it is important because not only are the two women from different classes, but also from different ethnicities and cultures, so they transcend that divide as well.
I think that the airport has some significance. An airport is the means through which different countries and cultures come together, at least for ordinary people. The airport allows them to go to different countries to experience them, so I think it is important that this happened at the airport.
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