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Clare Wahinya
Instructor: Kathye Bergin
ENG 1302
April 21, 2011
Healing
Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines the word heal as “…to restore to health, or
…to mend”. This involves a process whereby the item that is “broken” is put back
together to a better shape or to its original form.
Figure 1
In the poem “Women”, the author Adrienne Rich, portrays her three sisters as follows:
My three sisters are sitting
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On rocks of black obsidian
For the first time, in this light, I can see who they are.
My first sister is sewing her costume for the procession
She is going as the Transparent Lady
And all her nerves will be visible.
My second sister is also sewing
At the seam of her heart which has never healed entirely
At last, she hopes the tightness in her chest will ease.
My third sister is gazing
At a dark-red crust spreading westward far out on the sea
Her stockings are torn, but she is beautiful (899).
Relevance
From this poem, the author sets a dull theme through the three sisters who seem to
have gone through some kind of “tear” in their lives. The author uses symbolism to
show this by the fact that the first two sisters are sewing, each sewing a different thing.
Additionally, Rich presents the three sisters sitting on a black obsidian rock (899). This
is another great use of symbolism because the obsidian rock is usually found in areas
that have had recent volcanic activity (Geology). Rich relates the recent volcanic activity
to the tears that the three sisters have gone through. The reader is led to believe that
through their experiences, the three sisters have hidden their real selves even from the
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author. This is because in the last line of the first stanza the author says she will finally
see who the three sisters really are (Rich 899).
Healing Process
As the three sisters sew, they are individually making attempts to heal their wound.
However, from the author’s point of view, the first sister is at the point where she can
finally express her anger. Even though it may not seem like much progress to the
reader, this is indeed a positive direction toward healing. According to Kubler-Ross’
theory, when one is recovering from some pain-causing situation, he/she goes through
five steps:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance (Buglass 45).
Therefore, the first sister is in the anger stage, which is the second step towards
healing. On the other hand, the second sister is hoping that the chest tightness she has
been experiencing will finally go away. Like her sister, she is also making the effort
alone, trying to overcome the loss or pain she feels. Last but not least, the third sister is
not sewing, even though she has a tear on the stocking she is wearing. Instead, she is
gazing far out in the sea (899). Rich refreshes the reader’s memory by depicting the
third sister as having a new “tear”, and one that will probably need sewing sometime
down the road. According to the theorist Kubler-Ross, the third sister is depicting signs
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of being in the first stage of grieving, which is denial. Instead of focusing on the tear she
has on her leg, she is gazing away, and ignores her own problems. The reader is also
led to the notion that the third sister may not actually believe that she has gone through
a devastation that needs care.
Aided Healing or Self-Help
Rich makes the reader wonder why the women are going through the healing process
on their own, instead of having friends, family, or professionals helping them. It is
possible that the three women see their hurts as personal and ones they cannot burden
others with. Also, they might have accepted the fact that “there is a time for
everything…a time to kill and a time to heal…a time to mourn and a time to dance… a
time to tear and a time to kill…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Another possibility is that the
women are using what is readily available to them as a means of coping with the pain
they have endured. As Otto says, sewing is something that women have done since
Figure 2
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hundreds of years ago (6). Therefore, it might come naturally to the sisters to get into
sewing in an attempt to ease their pain or as they try to cope.
Impaired Healing
Rich implies that the first and second sisters have had the need to mend their “broken
hearts” for awhile, but they have not achieved complete healing. As the reader, one
relates these two women to today’s society where so many people have endured hurtful
situations and have never gone beyond the hurt. But like is the case of the two sisters,
several factors might contribute to this impaired healing:
Lack of other available resources and hence resorting to using what is currently
available. The sisters use sewing, but it is not fully effective.
Lack of support. The two sisters are depicted as each sewing her own garment,
with no interaction or presence of other people to help them.
Social isolation. The author is now able to see who her three sisters really are.
The second sister is also shown letting out her anger through the statement “her
nerves will be visible” (899).
Through reading this poem by Rich, the reader gets in the shoes of the hurting sisters,
and hence the hurting people in today’s world that are attempting to get healing. It is an
eye opener for the reader to see the problems impairing the healing process and to help
those stuck in the process. The author also depicts that self-help to aid in healing is a
positive step, but when optimum results are not attained, one should seek help from
elsewhere.
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Works Cited
Buglass, E. “Grief and Bereavement Theories.” Nursing Standard. 24.41(2010) 44-47.
EBSCO.
Daniel, Lillian. "The cracked vase." Christian Century 08 Aug. 2006: 31. Academic
Search Complete. 11 Mar. 2011. EBSCO.
Fig. 1 image from achristianhome.org.
Fig. 2 image from zazzle.com
Geology. “News and Information About Geology.” April 21, 2011. Web.
Merriam Webster Dictionary. April 21, 2011.
New International Version. Ed. Chuck Swindoll. Dallas, TX. 1999.
Rich, Adrienne. “Women.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and
Writing, 11th Edition. Longman. 899. Print
Rank, Otto. "Conquering Cities and “Conquering” Women: A Contribution to the
Understanding of Symbolism in Poetry." Political Psychology 31.1 (2010): 6-19.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Mar. 2011. EBSCO.
Upton D, Soloweij, K. “Pain and Stress as Contributors to Delayed Wound
Healing.” Wound Practice and Research. August 2010: 114-122. EBSCO.
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