Prof. Michael Bross
Unit 1 Final Draft
February 11, 2015 “After Auschwitz” “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton speaks about the anger a person has against man. Reading the poem, one can easily recognize the anger Sexton has towards the Nazis. The narrator, in the poem, blames the Nazis for killing millions of innocent people, but it also seems as if she is blaming man in general. The narrator also mentions the potential of a man and his corruption. As for Sexton, she portrays the evilness man is going through, or will go through. She also portrays the evilness of what man had done during the war and in general. Sexton’s indictment of humankind is accurate because in today’s society man is still portrayed as evil. The only way …show more content…
In her poem, Sexton seems like she wants man to be destroyed, that is why she mentions “man is a flower that should be burnt/a bird full of mud.” One can easily notice the narrator's anger in this quote. Sexton describes man as a flower meaning that they are delicate, innocent, and beautiful. Soon, she shows man's corruption by saying they should be burnt, showing man's dark side. Man is corrupted for what they had not done, which is putting themselves before others. An example is of the Nazis, during WWII; the Nazis, who were once people with better motives, watched millions of people die, and did nothing to save anyone. Because they are bad, man should be destroyed, as how Sexton would say. The reason Sexton mentions that a flower should be burnt is because she wants to show that a flower can easily be destroyed; that man can easily be destroyed. As soon as Sexton mentions “bird full of mud”, one can instantly noticed that the bird has redemption. The bird can easily be cleaned from his mud; man can easily be cleaned from evil, from their wrong doings. This shows that Sexton knows that man can be saved from cruelty, they have a chance to 'clean' themselves. Although Sexton shows the destruction of man as a burning flower she shows redemption through the use of a hope that signifies