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Aunt Jennifer's Tigers, Made by=
Minal ,kumkum ,jyoti - Coggle Diagram
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
The theme of the poem “Aunt Jennifer's Tigers” by Adrienne Rich is how the power of the patriarchy controls women's forms but not their minds. The poem makes this point by presenting the wild, interesting, powerful tigers embroidered by Aunt Jennifer and contrasting them with Aunt Jennifer, the oppressed wife.
about the poet
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Born=16 May 1929, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Died =27 March 2012, Santa Cruz, California, United States
Education=Radcliffe College a women’s liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Awards=National Book Award for Poetry, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
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Summary
In this feminist poem, which is critical of the male world,
Aunt Jennifer creates an alternate world of freedom in her art.
The tigers of Aunt Jennifer’s stitchings are representative of her desire of a free spirit,
emphasising the fact that she pines for freedom from her burdensome husband.
The first stanza opens with Aunt Jennifer’s visual tapestry of tigers who are fearless of their environment. “Bright topaz denizens of a world of green” – evoke an image that these tigers are unafraid of other beings in the jungle. Here, ‘bright’ signifies their powerful and radiant persona. There is a sense of certainty and confidence in the way these tigers move as can be seen in the line – “They pace in sleek chivalric certainty”.
In the second stanza, the reality of Aunt Jennifer is revealed as she is feeble,
weak and enslaved, very much the opposite of the tigers she was knitting.
Her physical and mental trauma is depicted in the line – “find even the ivory needle hard to pull”.
Even though a wedding ring doesn’t weigh much, “the massive weight of uncle’s wedding band, sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand” signifies the amount of dominance her husband has exercised over her. This also means that her inner free spirit has been jailed by the patriarchal society.
The last stanza starts on a creepy note about Aunt Jennifer’s death. Even her death wouldn’t free her from the ordeals she went through which can be seen in “When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by”. But her art work which was her escape route or in a way, her inner sense of freedom, will stay forever, proud and unafraid.
word meaning
Fluttering : to move in quick, irregular motions as if being agitated.
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Chivalric : being courteous esp. to women, an act of a gentleman.
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Denizens : here, an animal that lives or is found in a particular place.
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Made by=
Minal ,kumkum ,jyoti
