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Girl Powdering Her Neck by Cathy Song

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Introduction

"Girl Powdering Her Neck" is a sonnet with short lines of different length partitioned into

7 stanzas. The heading and enlightening subtitle ("from a ukiyo-e print by Utamaro") means the

Japanese craftsman Kitagawa Utamaro, was best famous about numerous Japanese printmakers

working with the ukiyo-e convention created delicate investigations in favored class which

exceedingly developed, also very much regarded courtesans. The word ukiyo-e, usually translated

as "photos of the suspended scene," recommends a momentary way for beauty. The poem is about

a lady setting herself up, she does her day to day works to be a question of a brief however lovely

experience.

The poem starts with a picture of light sparkling into lavatory. The light is the inside sheen

of an oyster shell,"(1) a quote from the poem, portrays the picture of light bouncing back from the

sparkly surface of a clam shell, which might be utilized to hold a question utilized as a part of the

bathroom, for example, a wipe or brush. Utamaro's work of art has a particular yellow tint

encouraging this thought of light. This utilization of light, in both the work of art and the poem,

shows up as a focus on the lady. The first two paragraphs portray a scenario where this lady is

delineated, however, since the theme is as of now been introduced by Utamaro, the storyteller offer
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basically a craftsmanship faultfinder's perspective of a better print. The first sentences in the

poem" The light is the inside/ sheen of an oyster shell "(1) request the reader to think critically

about the nature of light within print and also in a genuine scene, in a twofold happiness. However,

the poem talks more of a craftsmanship faultfinder's brave utilization of frame and also the

storyteller is as enchanted by the story this scene proposes as the craftsman more likely than not

been, it can be found in the sonnet's understanding of shellfish nature of the light as moisture

from a bath."(1)

Following, there is a short depiction of the lady's appearance. She has a black hair with

clues of red color. The cruel black shade in her hair insights at the lady's Japanese roots, while the

red speaks to a kind of partition from the conventional culture. Her hair in the artwork is stuck up

with a chopstick proposing this Japanese culture. This thought of customary culture is facilitated

by the ritual wheel of the body,"(4) her morning schedule. The lady smears powder on her face

using her fingertips, yet this powder is portrayed as "pollen." The utilization of "pollen" can be

utilized in delineating her young appearance though she will blossom into a lady, similar to bloom

in nature.

Her closet advances this duality and pressure made between her traditionalism and the need

for splitting away. " The peach-dyed kimono patterned with maple leaves drifting across the silk,

falls from right to left,"(5) the kimono refers to a conventional wardrobe; however, it is uncovering

the scruff of her neck and the ebb and flow of her shoulder outlining her sexuality uncovered. Her

hand arrangement in the artistic creation on the scruff of her neck attracts the watcher's eye to this

weakness and sexuality.

As to her makeup, she is about to paint herself (6) underscoring her stylish excellence

and worry with her own appearance. She parts her mouth marginally breaking "the symmetry of
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silence."(6) The separating of the mouth outlines her need to end the hush. Her position in the

public arena must be exclusively worried with tasteful excellence, not of a lady's thoughts. "But

the berry-stained lips, stenciled into the mask of beauty, do not speak."(6)

Generally, the sonnet depicts a picture of a girl in Ukiyo-e. The entire depiction is for a

painting, and in the canvas is a picture of lavatory, in the morning hour and the girl is in restroom.

Outside the bathrooms, there is a couple of shoes. She is cleaning up inside washroom, her body

is discharging vapor, she bows down to look at her excellence from the mirror. The young lady

attempts her best to be appealing and seductive. She needs to give the impression of being

excellent. She is attempting to make her skin delicate. She is proficient whore, she hones joy, she

needs to offer delight to others, she needs to do everything not for herself but rather for the other,

and she is quite recently generalized. She experiences guys whom she doesn't have an inkling.

She puts on the clothing uncovering the scruff of the neck and bending shoulders. She does

all this to appear alluring to guys. She has also been preparing herself in a mentality to attract men

around her. The girl has a place with lower strata of the general public. In the entire poem, the girl

seems so quiet. She tries to express her existential fear. She is most probably not happy with the

work. In this manner seems to attempt assuaging herself through her expressions, however

instantly after that she becomes more knowledgeable in the social truth.

Up to this point, only she is the sole observer to what she does. However, after the

expression, the entire society will come to realize what she does. At that point there will be twofold

abuses social cum physical upon her. So as to evade this social abuse, she stays noiseless. Her

world is incomprehensible and unpresentable. The free enterprise foundation changes the

individuals into fiscal creatures and one is constrained to gain for living at any cost. This girl is

moving according to the request of private enterprise however her male accomplices stay free
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when she endures. She is illustrative of humankind by and large. This verse is attempting to

demonstrate that social life and expert life as whore can't exist together. In that event she has to

abandon some activities like the social life so as to get to live a better life that impresses her more.

In the last paragraph two aspects of this lady are referred, "Two chrysanthemums touch in

the middle of the lake and drift apart."(7) Each piece in herself, her traditionalism and internal

longings, float separated in light of the fact that she can no longer keep up both. She is caught

behind her "mask of beauty" not able to completely bloom into who she really is. The poem and

the artwork consolidate flawlessly to give a voice to this youthful, Japanese lady's struggles to

locate her actual identity.

Work cited

Girl Powdering Her Neck () by Cathy Song