Theme Of The Map By Elizabeth Bishop

The Map That Tried to Mirror the World: An Analysis On "The Map" by Elizabeth Bishop
“The Map” by Elizabeth Bishop is a three stanza narrative poem that explores the intricacies, simplicities and representational fallacies of a map. The poem is complex in the sense that it features how the map is simply an analog for reality; a medium unable to truly or completely capture the authenticity of the real world. In contrast to its elaborate theme, the clarity and simplicity of the title is also almost ironic compared to to the actual following poem. This is because The Map seems like it will be straightforward and concrete like its literal sense but the poem turns out to be anything but. The writing style of Bishop is such that it compels the reader into thinking that they are entering into the map itself, and manages to emote the distinct differences between the reality that we live in and the one that is supposedly displayed on a piece of paper; her claims towards accuracy and objectivity. Bishop also astutely manages to inform …show more content…
To create a reality where we can see the whole world yet not truly experience it. The Map by Elizabeth Bishop investigates the relation of the literal map to the reality of the world. It thoroughly documents how the representation of the world is clouded by perception and provides a gateway for the imagination to create its own interpretations of the real world due to the lacking details of the map itself. Reading through the poem, one can see how a map is an attempt to try recreate the real world but is unable to achieve that due to the ephemeral nature of people and land, and only shows to be how our world can not truly be captured or recorded in any real