Cynicism In Szymborska's Poems

Cynicism is the inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; skepticism. Cynicism has its roots as a pessimistic outlook on life, which Szymborska regularly conveys through the use of symbolism in her poems. She portrays cynicism in many of her works such as in the poems “Parable” and “Cat in an empty apartment”, and more specifically her use of symbolism to convey her cynical belief that people are intrinsically motivated by self-interest and a sense of self-importance. The poems “Parable” and “Cat in an empty apartment” makes use of private, homely and public, worldly symbols to convey her cynicism. “Parable” has symbols which have strong allusions to religion and a more general overview of her cynicisms whereas “Cat in an empty apartment” has a more every day, familiar and magnified aspect of her perspective. Collectively, these poems allow the reader a glimpse into Szymborska’s outlook on life and allowed her to offer a different perspective to the reader and potentially challenge the reader’s beliefs and possibly influence them. …show more content…
The ocean depicted in the poem can be interpreted as a symbol of life due to the use of personification and the fact that oceans could be considered a living being due to the respiration that takes place within it . In line 3 of the poem, “(The) ocean cast me on this desert island” , the use of the word “cast” suggests a supernatural power was controlling every aspect of the islander’s fate and the island was the specified location because the word “cast” implies that the ocean specified the direction in which to move the person. In this respect, Szymborska uses the symbol of the ocean to emphasize the magnitude of life and its unpredictable and powerful