Aunt Jennifers Tigers by Adrienne Rich Essay -- Aunt Jennifers Tiger

Aunt Jennifers Tigers by Adrienne replete Who is Aunt Jennifer? Does she even exist? I had to look at myself these questions before even going further into the poesy. The answers opened the door to a deeper meaning behind Aunt Jennifers Tigers. Based on Adrienne Richs background I suppose Aunt Jennifer did exist. However, Aunt Jennifer was not Richs aunt. Aunt Jennifer represented women all over the world, particularly women in American, who were caught under the oppressive hand of a patriarchal society. Adrienne Rich was perhaps one of those women. Rich, one of the most influential poets of her time, dealt with controversial issues such as sexuality, race, language, power, and womens culture. Her passion in this area forced her to look and challenge the modular and the norm. The popular clich that refers to marriage as that old ball and chain takes on a more serious meaning with Rich as she reveals, through the elementary lines of Aunt Jennifers Tigers, a womans struggles with expression, rebellion, and a society where power is defined as manful.Aunt Jennifers Tigers by Adrienne RichAunt Jennifers Tigers prance across a screen, glistening topaz denizens of a world of green. They do not fear the men beneath the treeThey pace in sleek chivalric certainty. Aunt Jennifers fingers disturbance through her woolFind even the ivory needle hard to pull. The massive saddle of Uncles wedding bandSits heavily upon Aunt Jennifers hand. When Aunt Jennifer is dead, her terrified hands will lieStill ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.The tigers in the panel that she madeWill go on prancing, purple and unafraid. Rich begins her poem with a beautiful picture, setting the scene for the dream wo... ...it through masculine images. Those images were all she had ever known. Aunt Jennifer never got to see women standing strong and proud because they were simply women. She missed out on watching women become astronauts, businesswomen, artists, and policemen. The r eason her needlepoint went on prancing and proud and unafraid was because the needlepoint represented all things masculine and therefore, had nothing to fear.In the end, Adrienne Rich showed that Aunt Jennifer represented every woman of her time. Ironically enough, she rebels using the oppressors own language to feel a sense of triumph. Overwhelmed by gender roles, unable to communicate firsthand how they really felt, and torn between rebellion, expression, and society, Aunt Jennifer represses her fears and desires into the exotic tigers which go on living even after the weight of her world buries her.