Doty’s various descriptions seemed to hinder the meaning of his topics but the multiple ways of conveying the mackerel helped connect to the single idea of community. Doty’s expression of groups seems to be one of praise because groups allow people to live on through one another. The group of fish is made of individuals but they no longer become individuals when they are together. A community is made of different people that make up a common idea and therefore must be represented in different ways. In the essay “Can Poetry Console a Grieving Public,” Doty describes an event after 9/11 that demonstrates duality in groups. He recalls a gathering at Union Square a week after 9/11 in which people came together spontaneously in an unorganized event to offer some mourning. Doty describes his experience when he says, “We attempted to sing. But either because the crowd was so big that we couldn’t hear each other, or because we could not agree on a song, there was never any totalized, communal singing. One group would pick up Give Peace a Chance, but on the edges of that would be Amazing Grace,”
The congregation at Union Square was chaotic; there was no coordination or plan. The vigil resembles Doty’s scattered style of writing in that there were different songs sung. However, a single line or idea can be drawn through the scattered song …show more content…
However, this raises the question of why the dead fish was the small topic analyzed. Doty talks about a connection that he felt with the mackerel but how come the connection existed with a fish and sweat stain and not another small aspect in life. Also, does every seemingly irrelevant thing in life have meaning? Is there a possibility that we are adding meaning to things that are just what they are? Or perhaps there is meaning but the sweat stain or fish may mean one thing to one person and another to someone
The congregation at Union Square was chaotic; there was no coordination or plan. The vigil resembles Doty’s scattered style of writing in that there were different songs sung. However, a single line or idea can be drawn through the scattered song …show more content…
However, this raises the question of why the dead fish was the small topic analyzed. Doty talks about a connection that he felt with the mackerel but how come the connection existed with a fish and sweat stain and not another small aspect in life. Also, does every seemingly irrelevant thing in life have meaning? Is there a possibility that we are adding meaning to things that are just what they are? Or perhaps there is meaning but the sweat stain or fish may mean one thing to one person and another to someone