Her Kind
Trapped in a Box an
analysis of Anne Sexton’s “
Her Kind”
To live only by societies standards is like a slow
death indeed. In the poem “Her Kind”, Anne Sexton
writes of
the difficulties in being an “out of the ordinary” in
society.
In the first verse Sexton use the analogy of a witch’s
life to describe the feeling of seclusion, and the need
to
hide one’s true self from those live the “normal life”.
The
monotony of such a life is best described when Sexton
explains, “Dreaming evil I have done my hitch/ Over the
plain houses
light by light”(3,4) and so representing
the
conformity around her. Describing also the life of an
outcast and how one as such is perceived as subhuman,
she
goes on to say, “Lonely thing twelve fingered, out of
mind/
A
woman like that is not a woman quite.”(5,6)
Through the body of the poem she continues to delve
into the boredom of daily life, and the frustrations
with
it. Speaking of the home, she tells of her “cave in the
woods” and all its traditional amenities, “Filled them
with
skillets, carvings, shelves/ closets, silks, innumerable
goods.” Sexton admits to her own conformity, comparing
her
own routine to an attempt to please mindless onlookers,
here
describes as “worms and elves”. “A woman like that is
misunderstood,” for her depth of thought and character
go
unnoticed.(13)
As the poem draws to a close, the narrator is taken
from this town that has so forsaken her, and expresses
the
burn still left from their scrutinizing eyes. She has
survived the torment of their judgment and found
acceptance
within, withdrawing from their world. “Where the flames
still bite my thigh/ And my ribs crack where your wheels
wind/ A woman like that is not ashamed to die/ I have
been
her kind.”(18-21)
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