The poem

THE POEM Marge Piercy who was born in Detroit, is known as a feminist writer. Her poem, Breaking Out was first published in the Harbor Review in 1984. The poem portrays the double oppression faced by a girl, for being a girl child and a child, at the same time. The poem depicts how the girl wants to break out from the conventional norms of the society which is responsible for the oppression. Piercy's "Breaking Out" holds meaning in terms of its technique and thematic elements. Both aspects contribute to the poem's overall meaning of activism and the need to forge a statement of defiance in a world where conformity is expected and enforced. Piercy's poem is one of transformation, where individuals can envision what they can be as opposed to what is expected of them. From a structural point of view, there is no definite convention to which the poem must adhere. Stanzas of four lines and three lines alternate. There is no defined rhyme scheme. In its openness of form, Piercy seeks to give articulation to the condition of freedom that the subject of the poem, herself as a child, experiences at its end. Piercy delivers a poem from a narrative point of view, reflective of her own growth from a child to an adult. The experience of the ruler and the discipline she experienced at its hand becomes the critical aspect of the narrative frame.

The surface meaning of the poem is a reflection about how Piercy as a child experienced discipline in the form of beatings with a wooden yardstick. From this, the sensory imagery utilized in the poem brings out the narrative frame of reference from the child's point of view. The initial sight of the closet doors, "leaning together like gossips," establishes the exposition for the entirety of the poem. The description of the vacuum bag as "stuffed with sausage" is another example of the sensory imagery in the poem, as is the detail of how she responded when she was beaten with the meter stick as one who "bellowed like a locomotive."The imagery of the poem is one that combines a sense of oppression with liberation. Both dynamics are critical to the appreciation of the poem. The oppressive tendencies can be seen in the images of domesticity. This is evident in the description of the speaker's mother's life with lines such as "to see my mother removing daily/ the sludge the air lay down like a snail's track" or "housewife scrubbing/ on raw knees as the factory rained ash." This inward imagery of domesticity is contrasted with the extroverted pictures of liberation that is evident in the lines, "red and blue mountain/ ranges on a map that offered escape" and "I could travel to freedom when I grew." In utilizing images that represent oppression and liberation, it becomes clear that Piercy is suggesting that her childhood was positioned between the world of expectation and conformity, representing the silencing of voice, and one of liberation and transformation, involving a departure from it. The poetic devices in the poem help to enhance the poem's thematic function.The poem's themes reside in the struggle towards liberation. The titular concept refers to a forcible repudiation of a contingency that silences voice. This repression is seen on two levels in the poem. The first is the repression of women in the form of imposed domesticity. The speaker of the poem reacts with intense rejection towards a life where she is told what to do and how to live: "... as if weary of housework as I,/ who swore I would never dust or sweep." Her reaction is an indication that the predicament women face is one where they are forced into a life of domesticity with limited opportunities for freedom and voice. It is an existence tethered to routine, denying freedom, and steeped in monotonous repetition.The invocation of Sisyphus from the school lesson is reflective of how the speaker perceives domestic life. The second level of repression exists in the parent/ child dynamic. The child speaks of being beaten by both parents with the "wooden yardstick." Her breaking of the rule enables the speaker to move into "power gained." The ability to assert her voice in the face of parental repression represents her voice authenticated and her narrative validated. She has clearly established that she will not be Sisyphus in her act of breaking the yardstick. It is this in which the "breaking out" element is most demonstrative.Piercy describes her writing as emerging from a singular vision. It is a vision that she believes unifies her process and products of thought: "I dont really differentiate between writing a love poem or a poem about a blue heron, or a poem about a demonstration or a poem about a Jewish holiday. To me, its all one vision. This vision is one where individual voice is revealed. This is evident in "Breaking Out." Bill Moyers argues that Piercy's gift is evident when she "forges imaginative communities centered in day-to-day mature relationships and on the awareness that human capacity cannot be separated from specific individual circumstances." The transformative moment in which Piercy breaks the ruler and breaks out into a world of "power gained" becomes central to the poem.Lines 1-7: These lines describe the first political act led by a girl who is subjected to endless humiliation and domestic chores. She asks the readers if they want her to tell them about her first political act. There she describes the circumstances that led her to take her first act that is to break free from the conventional norms of a patriarchal society. She mentions about two doors which are usually open and leaning against each other in a way that seems like they are gossiping and whispering secrets into each others ears. The two doors are of two opinions for her- one to maintain the status quo and endure all the humiliation and exploitation; two, to break away from the traditional rules of a biased society where a woman is ill-treated and is put through limitless mortifications and thankless domestic chores.She looks on the different household objects used for carrying out different chores. First, there is a laundry machine used to wring out or iron damp clothes. It is used to iron even those clothes which require no ironing like bed sheets, towels and her fathers undergarments.Lines 8-14: She looks at an old style vacuum cleaner standing vertical on the ground with its filter bag stuffed with dust. She recalls the roaring and loud sound made by the vacuum cleaner when its bag is deflated. She compares her life to that of the cleaner, she says the sound made by the cleaner shows as if it is tired of dust-suction as she is. This makes her swear that she would not dust or sweep when she would grow up. She despicably watches her mother remove the filth each day, accumulated daily due to the emissions from the factory. The laundry machine and the vacuum cleaner are symbols of the endless plodding which is a part of a womans life.Lines 15-21: When the girl reads about Sisyphus in school, she was reminded of her mother. Sisyphus was a Greek King, who was punished because of showing disrespect to Zeus and had to toll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down the hill and had to repeat the action forever. The girl compares Sisyphus to her mom. Her mom, as a housewife is allocated the duty of many household chores. She has to kneel down on bare knees to broom and mop out the filth emitted by factories. The poet then looks at the yardstick, poor in texture and quality. The yardstick has become dusty with chalk marks used to her mother to measure the length of the hem of clothes to tailor them.Lines 22-32: The yardstick is also used to punish the girl by her parents when they find her mischievous. The girl is brutally beaten up by her parents and she howls and screams like a railway engine as if the screams would lessen her pain. She says her mothers blows are fierce while her fathers are longer and harder. There is an irony in this, because the girls mother who herself is a victim of the patriarchal society is also the reason of her daughters oppression. After the beatings, she turns her head towards the mirror to investigate her lashes. The lashes look like mountain ranges on a map, showing her an escape route. On the other hand, the arteries and veins on her back remind her of the ridges in the mountains, makes her believe that she would travel one day to gain independence.Lines 33-42:She describes the incident that signaled her entry into adolescence. She talks about the incident that took place when she was eleven. One day after the beatings from her parents, she broke the stick which was used for punishing her. She stared at the broken pieces of the stick and could not believe that it was she who gathered courage to break it. She wondered how the stick was weaker than her. She says that it was not that after breaking the stick, she was not beaten by her parents but by destroying the instrument of her oppression, she has led herself into adolescence. Though, biologically she was still a child. She realized that there are some things that should be broken, like old conventions, restrictions put on women. The poet tells us that this story of the girl looks like the story of someone who lost her innocence, who gained power- the power to break out from the confinements of the narrow domestic walls and customs. It the power which makes her promise that she would not be another Sisyphus like her mother.