Journal on “Beneath the Shadows of the Freeway”
The main point of the author in the poem, Beneath the Shadows of the Freeway, is that a woman, even if she’s married to a man, should still be able to support herself and not be solely dependent on her husband. In addition, the author pointed out in the poem that as a woman grows old she should learn basic skills in life that would allow her to survive. To illustrate her points in the poem, the author used two characters, grandma, who is an independent woman, and her granddaughter, who is a woman still learning how to become independent.
In other words, the grandmother represents the past as she is experienced and does not rely on anyone else to survive while her granddaughter represents the future as she is still learning to be self-supporting. In the poem, the author portrayed how grandma lived her life after she left her husband who almost tried to kill her. The grandmother was depicted as a woman with various skills such as planting geranium and, as stated in the poem, being able to “trust what she builds with her own hands.
” In addition, the author also showed the granddaughter’s admiration for her grandmother and her survival skills. This was shown in the last lines of the poem wherein the granddaughter said that someday she too will be able to learn how to plant geraniums and build things with her own hands. In short, the granddaughter believed that she must acquire the skills of her grandmother so that she won’t be solely dependent on her man and would learn to stand up on her own two feet.
The author was very convincing in emphasizing her points throughout the poem as she used situations that are happening in the real world. She used the grandmother as a symbol of an independent woman who young girls should emulate, which is shown in the granddaughter’s desire to become like her grandma when she grows old. I basically agree with the author that a woman should learn how to be independent even if she is married as this will greatly help her in situations wherein her husband is not present.
