English Essay

A commentary written on a Prose (Aprox 1000 Words)

Ok I lied, more like 850 words. I felt like I really failed at this commentary, I'll tell you what mark I get as I'm sending it in to the teacher as well.

The passage from The Loom seems to be about the isolation of a mother, the hobby that she finds, and the use of it as an expression for her feelings. From the very start there seems to be a sombre mode present in the poem, and we first find out about the isolation from when ‘we dig her out’ she juts ‘crawls back in, only deeper.’ It is presumed that the mother goes into this isolation because of an external pressure, because she seems to ‘have taken refuge’ in it. It appears as if that the mother seems to be unable to communicate properly to the daughters, and they are unsure about what they should do in relation to this situation.

The use of three sisters seems to represent three different views on what they should do about this situation. Two of the sisters, are at opposites in view points, with Jo wishing to ‘break through’ to their mother, to talk to her, while Linda ‘defended the fortress’ that she was in. However it was the middle daughter, who provides a compromise to their situations, giving their mother a loom, which allows for communication, at their mother’s pace. There is the use of two of the sisters to present widely divergent views, while the one in the ‘middle’ often viewed as a mediating role, provides the solution to their conflict.

One of the most obvious themes in the prose is the use of colour to represent different things, both in the life of the mother, and the pieces made from the loom itself, seemingly comparing the pieces made from the loom as a snapshot of the life of the mother, or more accurately, of the lives around the mother. The first colours that are presented are brown and neutral shades, the ‘colours she preferred’. However later on she discovered that she could pick up threads selectively, so that she could show ‘flashes of colour’ or ‘never show it at all’. Even if it wasn’t easily apparent at the start, or even visible at all, if the piece was turned over, ‘the colour would still be there’, just not apparent in the ‘right side of the fabric’. This seems to draw a parallel with the mother’s ways of expressing, at the start, seemingly only showing feelings about herself, separated from the rest, the dull browns and neutral shades. Yet through the loom she is able to display her true feelings, not large overt ones, but one’s that seem to only peek through, appear as a flash, but if feelings could be turned over an examined like the pieces from the loom, would end up ‘startling the eye’. The feelings were there, just that she was incapable of expressing them, or perhaps more precisely, that the daughters themselves were incapable of understanding them completely.

This is further illustrated by the fact that when Jo, the sister that wished to break through directly, receives a muffler, she regards it immediately as ‘Mom’s colours’, perhaps without disdain, but without the immediate appreciation of the colours in it. Sharon, who seems to understand their mother better then Jo, asks her to put the muffler on, and then was surprised as ‘light, hidden colours leaped from the brown fabric’. She then states a phrase, one of the most important in the poem, ‘You’d never know it unless you looked real close’, to which Sharon replies with perhaps the most striking phrase in the passage, ‘Most people don’t’. This seems to symbolise the fact that even though it is not apparent at the start, it is still there, and that most people tend not to notice this fact.

The flashes of colour that is apparent though her weavings are reminiscent of periods in her life, each representing different things. There is the grey, for the cold mornings, when she warmed clothes for Jo, brown for the lunch and the brownies that they had made. White was the colour of sheets, while blue was Cathy’s favourite colour. Even though all of these colours are part of her life, every one of them are also connected to her daughters, which, as these would be important memories, show that they are important to her. This is emphasised through the fact that she loves weaving, and ‘never misses a class’, with the only exception being when ‘her daughters are home’.

The final few parts of the prose seem to suggest that their mother is not as strong as their father, as ‘she was crying’ when Jo had to leave. Also she is described as a ‘lighter mass’, one which gravitates naturally ‘toward a more substantial one’. She then returns home, and once again ‘amidst the comings and goings of the live around her’ she is by herself, a ‘woman bent over a loom’. In this she slowly weaves her pieces, which is synonymous for the lives around her, and of her life. Perhaps devoid of other ways to express herself, she continues weaving these images of live, ‘weaving the diverse threads of life’ into a ‘miraculous, mystical fabric’ which expresses her true feelings and views.