In poems, “Stealing” and “Education for leisure”, Duffy uses a range of literary devices like colloquial language and short sentences. Duffy clearly portrays a sinister and lonely persona in both poems. In “Stealing” the persona is presented as lonely and isolated from society so they resort to stealing just for the pleasure of doing it. Similarly, in “Education for leisure”, an egotistical young adult is portrayed who is killing living things to undo his intense isolation. These poems were written by Duffy to show the terrible situation the UK faced in the 1980s.
Duffy portrays the persona as cruel and callous through his heartless actions. When the persona is talking to the snowman, he described his “mind as cold as the slice of ice”. The …show more content…
This suggests that the persona has inhumane and unrealistic thoughts that can prove to be destructive and catastrophic. These thoughts have been created because of past experiences like isolation. The fact that he is trying to make friends with a snowman shows his severe desperateness and also the fact that he can relate with the snowman is just sad. There is an internal rhyme in the quote, “slice of ice”. The assonance in the quote creates a gradual melodic sound because of the way you say it, this adds to the sinister comparison. The comparison of him and the snowman displays his lack of compassion but also his intense loneliness. The snowman also reflects his cold state of mind. Another example of his cruel actions is how he “pours the goldfish down the bog”. He accomplishes this atrocious move on a vulnerable creature. This proves …show more content…
This is proven as he knows that we "don’t understand a word" he's "saying" .This means that the character knows that no one is listening and whatever he says is absolute nonsense to the reader and the society. Despite of knowing this, he still kept on talking because he is so desperate for someone to listen to him; this is emphasized by the rhetorical question as it is not supposed to be answered. This suggests that all he said was a complete waste as no one was paying attention to what he said, but he did it out of desperation and for his personal satisfaction which is someone listening to him. The phrase “do you?” emphasizes the overall question but it also suggests that he still has a tiny bit of hope left. Another example of his loneliness is how whatever he did at school (Shakespeare) is “in another language” for him. This proves that whatever he did at school was an absolute waste of time because of his boredom; this has left him in this disastrous situation. This suggests that the persona has missed out on the life changing opportunity of education which could have aided him and proved advantageous in all aspects of life. The massive jump from the fly to Shakespeare is very sudden for the readers. This irregular thought process can be seen as a fault or as something unique in the persona that other people don’t realize because they are used to the ideal. This can suggest that the
Duffy portrays the persona as cruel and callous through his heartless actions. When the persona is talking to the snowman, he described his “mind as cold as the slice of ice”. The …show more content…
This suggests that the persona has inhumane and unrealistic thoughts that can prove to be destructive and catastrophic. These thoughts have been created because of past experiences like isolation. The fact that he is trying to make friends with a snowman shows his severe desperateness and also the fact that he can relate with the snowman is just sad. There is an internal rhyme in the quote, “slice of ice”. The assonance in the quote creates a gradual melodic sound because of the way you say it, this adds to the sinister comparison. The comparison of him and the snowman displays his lack of compassion but also his intense loneliness. The snowman also reflects his cold state of mind. Another example of his cruel actions is how he “pours the goldfish down the bog”. He accomplishes this atrocious move on a vulnerable creature. This proves …show more content…
This is proven as he knows that we "don’t understand a word" he's "saying" .This means that the character knows that no one is listening and whatever he says is absolute nonsense to the reader and the society. Despite of knowing this, he still kept on talking because he is so desperate for someone to listen to him; this is emphasized by the rhetorical question as it is not supposed to be answered. This suggests that all he said was a complete waste as no one was paying attention to what he said, but he did it out of desperation and for his personal satisfaction which is someone listening to him. The phrase “do you?” emphasizes the overall question but it also suggests that he still has a tiny bit of hope left. Another example of his loneliness is how whatever he did at school (Shakespeare) is “in another language” for him. This proves that whatever he did at school was an absolute waste of time because of his boredom; this has left him in this disastrous situation. This suggests that the persona has missed out on the life changing opportunity of education which could have aided him and proved advantageous in all aspects of life. The massive jump from the fly to Shakespeare is very sudden for the readers. This irregular thought process can be seen as a fault or as something unique in the persona that other people don’t realize because they are used to the ideal. This can suggest that the