A. The poem Morning in the burned house depicts the childhood memories of the speaking voice. Are thosememories pleasant or unpleasant? Respond using suitable examples from the poem to supportyour answer (250-300 words). (10 marks)
Answers
Answer:
In Margaret Atwood's poem “Morning in the Burned House,” the speaker remembers a typical scene from her childhood. She is eating breakfast, perhaps a bowl of cereal from the description. The dishes are beside the sink. The kettle is in place by the wood stove. It is a bright day with the lake showing blue and a “bank of cloud” in the east. The forest seems “watchful.” The speaker notices the flaws in the window glass and the “swirls in the oilcloth” spread across the table.
These seem like they should be pleasant memories of a simple time, a normal day. Yet something is definitely wrong. There really is no house or breakfast, for there has been a fire. The house has been burned, the spoon and bowl melted. There is no one else present as there should be. The speaker's parents and siblings are gone. The speaker cannot quite figure out where they went, for their clothing is still hung up. There is a strong note of something unsettled in these memories.
The speaker is even disconnected from her own body. She cannot see herself, yet she feels happy at the table. Still, strangely, her clothing is burning, and the floorboards are scorched. We are left to wonder if this speaker was burned along with the house in a fire that killed her family.
What we have here, then, is a blend of pleasant memories of a typical day and the horror of a fire that turned that day into a nightmare. The poet has managed to capture them both simultaneously in a way that is haunting and even rather frightening.